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Bin Laden hideout destroyed

February 26, 2012

Nine months after al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces in a covert operation, Pakistani authorities have destroyed his hide-out.

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Bin Laden's house in Abbottabad
Image: picture-alliance/abaca

Pakistanon Saturday began demolishing Osama bin Laden's hide-out in Abbottabad, where he was killed May, according to police and eyewitnesses.

A police official told AFP press agency the demolition work was being conducted by security forces, including troops.

A senior administration official told Reuters the third floor of the three-storey building including bin Laden's room had already been destroyed. "We hope it will be over by tomorrow (Sunday) morning," he added.

Al-Qaeda chief bin Laden had lived in the compound, which is located just a mile (under 2 kilometers) away from an elite military academy, with his wives, nine children and grandchildren. He was killed there in a covert night time US Navy SEAL operation on May 1, 2011.

The raid encouraged suspicion that the Pakistani military and its spy agency, the ISI, had been working with militant groups, such as the Taliban, with Islamabad fighting the "war on terror" as a US ally.

The incident greatly strained US-Pakistani relations, which fell to their lowest ebb after a November NATO airstrike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

sb/dfm (Reuters, AFP, dpa)