In-focus

Osamas eldest wife betrayed him

Dunya News

According to US media report Osama bin Ladens eldest wife Khairiah Saber betrayed him.

Osama bin Laden had spent his last weeks in a house divided by his three suspicious wives who jealously vied for the Al Qaeda leader’s affections, New York Times reported on Thursday.Quoting a retired Pakistan army official, the paper made horrible facts about the suspicious killing of Osama bin Laden. On the top floor of his compound in Pakistan, bin Laden shared his bedroom with his youngest and favourite wife, Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah al-Sada, a Yemeni who was 19 when she married the al-Qaida leader in 1999.His second wife, Siham Saber, lived in another room which doubled up as a computer room on the same floor.Trouble arose when his eldest wife, Saudi-born Khairiah Saber, showed up in early 2011 and moved into the bedroom on the floor below. The eldest and youngest wives did not get on over bin Laden’s perceived favouritism of Amal.Others in the family, crammed into the three-storey Abbottabad compound where bin Laden would eventually be killed in a May 2 US raid, were convinced that the eldest wife intended to betray the Al Qaeda leader.Indeed, the compound where bin Laden lived since mid-2005 was a crowded place, with 28 residents — including bin Laden, his three wives, eight of his children and five of his grandchildren.Osama shared a room with his youngest and favourite wife, Amal Ahmed Abdel-Fatah as-Sada. Another wife, Siham Saber, lived on the same floor as her husband. His eldest wife, Khairiah Saber, arrived later and stirred up trouble living on the floor below.Bin Laden’s home life was stirred up when Khairiah joined the fray. There was already bad blood between Khairiah, who married bin Laden in the late 1980s, and Amal because of bin Ladens favoritism for the younger Yemeni woman.Amal stayed close to bin Laden as he fled Afghanistan into Pakistan following the 2001 U.S. invasion. She took an active role in arranging protection for him and bin Laden wanted her by his side, the tribal leaders told Qadir.Khairiah fled Afghanistan in 2001 into Iran along with other bin Laden relatives and Al Qaeda figures. She and others were held under house arrest in Iran until 2010, when Tehran let them leave in a swap for an Iranian diplomat kidnapped in Pakistans frontier city of Peshawar.Khairiah showed up at Abbottabad in February or March 2011 and moved into the villas second floor, Amal told her interrogators.Khalid, bin Ladens son with Siham, was suspicious, according to Amals account. He repeatedly asked Khairiah why she had come. At one point, she told him, ‘I have one final duty to perform for my husband.’ Khalid immediately told his father what she had said and warned that she intended to betray him.Amal, who shared Khalids fears, said bin Laden was also suspicious but was unconcerned, acting as if fate would decide, according to Qadirs recounting of the interrogation transcript.There is no evidence Khairiah had any role in bin Ladens end. Accounts by Pakistani and U.S. intelligence officials since the May 2 raid have made no mention of her. Instead, U.S. officials have said the courier inadvertently led the CIA to the Abbottabad villa after they uncovered him in a monitored phone call.Amal gave her interrogators details on bin Ladens movements after fleeing Afghanistan. Her account underscored that bin Laden did not stay long in Pakistans tribal-run regions on the border where the United States long presumed he was holed up.She and bin Laden hid for several months in 2002 in Salman Talab, a suburb of Kohat, a northwest Pakistani border town. There bin Laden was visited at least once by Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind arrested in Rawalpindi on March 1, 2003.Amal said they moved constantly to avoid being spotted for several months in South Waziristan, a border region. In 2004, she and other family members went to Shangla, a town in the Swat Valley, 80 miles (128 kilometers) northwest of the capital Islamabad. Bin Laden joined them by doubling back through Afghanistan because it was feared he could be identified if he crossed Pakistan.