The Obama administration officials were surprised by the demolition of slain al Qaeda kingpin Osama bin Laden’s house in Abbottabad by Pakistani authorities, a media report said on Monday. “The Pakistanis have been saying for a while that they wanted to do this (demolish bin Laden’s compound), but the timing came as a complete surprise,” an administration official was quoted as saying in a New York Times report. The official said with the anniversary of the raid that killed bin Laden approaching in early May, “the Pakistanis really don’t want to have all this attention around it”. He added that the house’s destruction was not likely to affect efforts to rekindle relations between the US and Pakistan, which have been deteriorated since an American air strike killed 24 Pakistani troops near the Afghan border in November. Pakistani authorities yesterday demolished the house in Abbottabad where bin Laden had lived with his three wives and children undetected for years.
