Osama bin Laden's wife was at the centre of a diplomatic custody battle today as a US bid to interrogate her was rejected by Pakistan.
US special forces intended to take Amal Ahmed al-Sadah, the youngest of bin Laden's five wives, with them after the raid on his compound. But their bid to gain crucial information about the al Qaeda leader's activities was thwarted when a helicopter crash meant they had no room to take her.
At the same time, Arab TV reported that a 12-year-old daughter of Bin Laden told Pakistani security services that her father had been captured alive before being shot in the head.[/B]
Bin Laden's wife, a 27-year-old Yemeni is now being treated in military hospital in Pakistan where the authorities have already refused an American request to question her. In a further blow to the US, the Pakistan government has also said that she will be sent home to Yemen once she has recovered.
The diplomatic stand-off is likely to heighten tension between the US and Pakistan over the Bin Laden raid by US special forces on Sunday. Pakistani officials claimed that a faulty helicopter prevented the US Navy Seal team which raided Bin Laden's compound from seizing his wife for interrogation.
Up until now it was assumed that the helicopter which crashed and was destroyed, thought to be an Mh-60 Sea Hawk, was meant only to ferry US troops out of Pakistan after the raid. Officials said, however, that the original US plan had been to take Bin Laden's family members with them for interrogation. Bin Laden's wife, who was shot in the calf during the raid, is instead now being treated at a military hospital in Rawalpindi. American officials are understood to have requested access to question her, but Pakistan has refused, saying that she and other family members living at the compound will instead be "handed over to their countries of origin".
That could prevent the US from obtaining important information about Bin Laden's activities during his years on the run, including where else he might have lived and equally significant details about his meetings and contacts.
There were conflicting reports about a second person taken by the US forces. Some Pakistani officials have said it was one of Bin Laden's sons, but others believe that he was killed and it was his corpse that was removed. The US has so far refused to comment.
In a further explosive development today, Bin Laden's 12-year-old daughter claimed that the al Qaeda leader was shot dead in cold blood.
Senior Pakistani security officials, quoted by the al Arabiya television station, said the girl had told them that her father had been captured, but then shot by the Seal team.
Other family members also claimed that no shots were fired by those living in the Abbottabad compound in a further challenge to the US account of the mission. The dramatic allegations follow the White House's admission that Bin Laden was unarmed when he died and the disclosure by the head of the CIA that he was given no chance to surrender.
US officials have also been forced to correct several other key details, including their original claim that Bin Laden had used his wife as a human shield and that she had died during the mission.
The girl, who was one of six of Bin Laden's children present in the compound, is now being held by the Pakistani authorities, along with Bin Laden's wife and another woman, who is thought to be either a relative or servant. In a statement, the Pakistan government said that all were in "safe hands" and would eventually be sent back to their countries of origin. There was no official comment on any US bid to question the al Qaeda leader's wife.
