Three women, 12 children, cows, rabbits and chickens all hid behind the high wall where Osama bin Laden carved out a family life, set to the gentle rhythm of changing seasonal crops outside his gate. Mobile phone video footage taken Tuesday by a Pakistani soldier offered a final glimpse into a life of rustic simplicity — a dozen eggs sitting in the kitchen sink, a few dishes on the side, large wooden cupboards open and bare.
Bin Laden’s final home, ransacked by US Navy SEAL commandos in an overnight raid last Sunday in the foothills of Pakistan’s Himalayan mountains, was not the luxury pile US reports first suggested. The three-storey building that became the fugitive terror chief’s last refuge was built in 2005, a white-walled square-built block without balconies, resembling a small clinic more than a country mansion. A score of people lived alongside the Al-Qaeda chief in his rural dwelling, including three of his wives and a dozen of their children.
At least five of them were killed during the US assault: bin Laden, whose body was taken by the Americans, one of his sons, his two bodyguards — known as the “Kuwaitis” – and a woman, according to Pakistani security sources. The survivors — three women and their children — are in Pakistani army detention. During interrogation, the youngest of the wives, Amal Ahmed Abdulfattah, a 29-year-old Yemeni, told investigators that bin Laden had lived in the villa for five years.
