Munir Ahmed

On the run, bin Laden lived in 5 houses

FILE - This Nov 18, 2011 file photo shows the guesthouse inside Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. A widow of Osama bin Laden has told investigators that the al-Qaida leader lived in five safe houses while on the run in Pakistan and fathered four children, two of them born in government hospitals. (AP Photo/Shaukat Qadir, File) (Credit: AP)

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Osama bin Laden lived in five safe houses while on the run in Pakistan and fathered four children — two of them born in government hospitals, his youngest widow has told investigators.

The details of bin Laden’s life as a fugitive in Pakistan are contained in the interrogation report of Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah al-Sada, bin Laden’s 30-year-old Yemeni widow. They appear to raise fresh questions over how bin Laden was able to remain undetected for so long in Pakistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, despite being the subject of a massive international manhunt.

Details from the report were first published by the Pakistani newspaper Dawn.

The Associated Press obtained a copy on Friday.

Al-Sada is currently in Pakistani custody, along with bin Laden’s two other wives and several children. They were arrested after the U.S raid that killed bin Laden in May in his final hideout in the Pakistani army town of Abbottabad. The U.S. Navy SEALs shot her in the leg during the operation.

Mohammed Amir Khalil, a lawyer for the three widows, said the women would be formally charged for illegally staying in Pakistan on April 2. That charge carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.

Since the raid that killed bin Laden, it has been known that he lived mostly in Pakistan since 2002.

Al-Sada’s account says she flew to Pakistan in 2000 and traveled to Afghanistan where she married bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks.

After that, the family “scattered” and she traveled to Karachi in Pakistan. She later met up with bin Laden in Peshawar and then moved to the Swat Valley, where they lived in two houses. They moved one more time before settling in Abbottabad in 2005.

According to the report, al-Sada said that two of her children were born in government hospitals, but that she stayed only “two or three hours” in the clinics on both occasions. The charge sheet against the three women says that they gave officials fake identities.

During the manhunt for bin Laden, most U.S. and Pakistani officials said that bin Laden was likely living somewhere along the remote Afghanistan-Pakistan border, possibly in a cave.

The fact he was living in populated parts of Pakistan raised suspicions elements in the Pakistani security forces may have been hiding him. U.S. officials have said they have found no evidence this was the case.

On the run, bin Laden lived in 5 houses

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Osama bin Laden lived in five safe houses while on the run in Pakistan and fathered four children — two of them born in government hospitals, his youngest widow has told investigators.

The details of bin Laden’s life as a fugitive in Pakistan are contained in the interrogation report of Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah al-Sada, bin Laden’s 30-year-old Yemeni widow. They appear to raise fresh questions over how bin Laden was able to remain undetected for so long in Pakistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, despite being the subject of a massive international manhunt.

Details from the report were first published by the Pakistani newspaper Dawn.

The Associated Press obtained a copy on Friday.

Al-Sada is currently in Pakistani custody, along with bin Laden’s two other wives and several children. They were arrested after the U.S raid that killed bin Laden in May in his final hideout in the Pakistani army town of Abbottabad. The U.S. Navy SEALs shot her in the leg during the operation.

Mohammed Amir Khalil, a lawyer for the three widows, said the women would be formally charged for illegally staying in Pakistan on April 2. That charge carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.

Since the raid that killed bin Laden, it has been known that he lived mostly in Pakistan since 2002.

Al-Sada’s account says she flew to Pakistan in 2000 and traveled to Afghanistan where she married bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks.

After that, the family “scattered” and she traveled to Karachi in Pakistan. She later met up with bin Laden in Peshawar and then moved to the Swat Valley, where they lived in two houses. They moved one more time before settling in Abbottabad in 2005.

According to the report, al-Sada said that two of her children were born in government hospitals, but that she stayed only “two or three hours” in the clinics on both occasions. The charge sheet against the three women says that they gave officials fake identities.

During the manhunt for bin Laden, most U.S. and Pakistani officials said that bin Laden was likely living somewhere along the remote Afghanistan-Pakistan border, possibly in a cave.

The fact he was living in populated parts of Pakistan raised suspicions elements in the Pakistani security forces may have been hiding him. U.S. officials have said they have found no evidence this was the case.

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British Red Cross Worker Kidnapped In Pakistan

Visitors are standing outside the Red Cross office in Quetta, Pakistan on Thursday, Jan 5, 2012. Armed men seized a Red Cross worker from the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Thursday, police and the organization said. Local police officer Nazir Ahmed Kurd said his initial information was that the man was a British health worker. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt)(Credit: AP)

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Armed men kidnapped a British Red Cross worker from the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Thursday, police said, highlighting the fragile security situation in the country.

The incident took place hours after Islamist militants elsewhere in the country killed 15 Pakistani security officers they seized last month close to the Afghan border and left their naked, bullet-riddled bodies sprawled on the ground.

Police officer Nazir Ahmed Kurd said the man was taken from a vehicle close to a Red Cross office in an upscale housing complex in Quetta. The assailants bundled him into their car and drove off. Kurd said the man was visiting a local school.

International Committee of the Red Cross spokeswoman Sitara Jabeen declined to disclose the man’s name or nationality, but confirmed a foreign employee was seized. The British High Commission said it was looking into the incident.

Baluchistan province is home to Islamist militants and separatist insurgents.

Both groups have kidnapped foreigners and locals in the region before.

Another officer, Ahsan Mahboob, said the British man was traveling with a Pakistani doctor and a driver. They were not taken, he said.

In 2009, an American working for the United Nations refugee agency in the city was kidnapped from the same district as the British aid worker. John Solecki was held for two months by the separatist Baluchistan Liberation United Front before he was released.

The 15 Pakistani officers from the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary were killed in retaliation for an army operation on Jan. 1 in northwest Pakistan that killed several militants, including a prominent commander, according to a statement from the Pakistani Taliban.

It alleged that troops also killed a woman and arrested others, “something that was forbidden and illegitimate in Islam as well as against tribal traditions.”

Their bodies were dumped in Shiwa town in the North Waziristan region, said local residents Sada-u-Alla and Salam Khan. Local Frontier Constabulary commander Ali Sher said his men were sent to the area to pick up the corpses.

The insurgents kidnapped them during a Dec. 22 attack on a Pakistani security base in the border region.

In recent months, some militant commanders and intelligence officials have claimed peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban, one of the largest and most brutal militant groups, were under way. But other Pakistani Taliban commanders have dismissed this, and sporadic attacks have continued.

Tribal leaders and analysts speculate that the group, which has been pounded by Pakistani army offensives and American missile strikes over the last few years, is riven with internal splits.

Also Thursday, the Taliban freed 17 Pakistani boys after holding them for four months in neighboring Afghanistan, said Islam Zeb, a government administrator in Pakistan’s troubled Bajur tribal region.

He said others were still in the custody of Taliban, who seized a group of 40 boys in September. The boys went to Afghanistan’s Kunar province when a man invited them to play in a river there.

The Taliban earlier freed captives under the age of 12.

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Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan and Anwarullah Khan from Quetta contributed to this report.

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British Red Cross Worker Kidnapped In Pakistan

Visitors are standing outside the Red Cross office in Quetta, Pakistan on Thursday, Jan 5, 2012. Armed men seized a Red Cross worker from the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Thursday, police and the organization said. Local police officer Nazir Ahmed Kurd said his initial information was that the man was a British health worker. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt)(Credit: AP)

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Armed men seized a British Red Cross worker from the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Thursday, police said.

Officer Nazir Ahmed Kurd said the man was seized from a vehicle that was heading to a Red Cross office in an upscale housing complex in Quetta. The assailants bundled him into their car and drove off. He had been visiting a local school.

International Committee of the Red Cross spokeswoman Sitara Jabeen declined to disclose the man’s name or nationality, but confirmed one of the group’s workers had been seized.

Quetta is home to Islamist militants as well as separatist insurgents. Both have kidnapped foreigners and locals in the region before.

Another officer, Ahsan Mahboob, said the man was was traveling with a Pakistani doctor and a driver. They were not seized, he said.

In 2009, an American working for the United Nations refugee agency in the city was kidnapped and held for two months.

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Ahmed reported from Quetta.

Red Cross Worker Kidnapped In Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Armed men seized a Red Cross worker from the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Thursday, police and the organization said.

Local police officer Nazir Ahmed Kurd said his initial information was that the man was a British health worker.

But an intelligence official in the city said the man was Yemeni. The official didn’t give his name because he is not allowed to be identified in the media.

International Committee of the Red Cross spokeswoman Sitara Jabeen declined to disclose the man’s name or nationality.

Kurd said the man was seized from a vehicle that was heading to a Red Cross office in an upscale housing complex in Quetta. He said the victim had been visiting a local school.

Quetta is home to Islamist militants as well as separatist insurgents.

Both have kidnapped foreigners and locals in the region.

In 2009, an American working for the United Nations refugee agency in the city was kidnapped and held for two months.

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Sattar reported from Quetta.

Red Cross Worker Kidnapped In Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The International Committee of the Red Cross says one of its workers has been kidnapped in the restive city of Quetta in southwestern Pakistan.

Spokeswoman Sitara Jabeen declined to disclose the man’s name or nationality.

Local police officer Nazir Ahmed Kurd said his initial information was that the man was British.

But an intelligence official in the city said the man was Yemeni. The official didn’t give his name because he is not allowed to be identified in the media.

Kurd said the man was seized by armed men from a vehicle in Quetta.

Quetta is home to Islamist militants as well as separatist insurgents.

Both have kidnapped foreigners and locals in the region in the past.

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Sattar reported from Quetta.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani militants on Thursday killed 15 security force members they kidnapped last month close to the Afghan border, showing that not all insurgent factions are interested in reported peace talks with the government.

The men’s naked bodies were dumped in Shiwa town in the North Waziristan region, said local residents Sada-u-Alla and Salam Khan. Local Frontier Constabulary commander Ali Sher confirmed the men had been killed, and said his men had been sent to the area to pick up the bullet-riddled corpses.

In a statement, the Pakistani Taliban said the slayings were in retaliation for an army operation on Jan. 1 in the region that killed several militants, including a prominent commander. It alleged that troops also killed a woman and arrested others, “something that was forbidden and illegitimate in Islam as well as against tribal traditions.”

The slain men were members of the constabulary, a paramilitary outfit active in the border region with Afghanistan.

The insurgents kidnapped them during a Dec. 22 attack on a Pakistani security base in the border region.

In recent months, some militant commanders and intelligence officials have claimed peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban, one of the largest and most brutal militant groups, were under way. But other Pakistani Taliban commanders have dismissed this, and sporadic attacks have continued.

Tribal leaders and analysts speculate that the group, which has been pounded by Pakistani army offensives and American missile strikes over the last few years, is riven with internal splits.

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Associated Press writer Rasool Dawar in Peshawar contributed to this report.

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