Osama bin Laden’s wife shares story of night when he was killed

Youngest of the four wives of Osama bin Laden, Amal bin Ladel, finally broke her silence and shared the story of the night when Osama bin Laden was killed by the American Seals. Details were provided by Amal to Cathy Scott-Clarke and Adrian Levy for their upcoming book “The Exile: The Flight of Osama bin Laden”.

Recalling the incident, Amal said that Osama was fast asleep after dinner when they heard the sickening screech with which US Military Black Hawk helicopter landed in their compound in Abbottabad. Panting and fearful of life, Osama said, “The Americans are coming”. At that moment, besides Amal, other wives of Osama and his children including 22-year old son Khalid wre present in the house. Osama called Khalid to come to him and Khalid grabbed an AK-47, that he had not fired since he was 13. Soon, they heard a huge blast and gate of their house was taken down by the US Navy Seals.

When he saw the gate taken down, Osama told his family that “They want me, not you” and asked his family to go downstairs. Osama’s two daughters Miriam and Sumaiya hid in balcony whereas Seham and Khalid went downstairs.

Amal stayed in the room with her son Husein and prayed. She had by then realised that someone had betrayed Osama and given details of their hideout of last 6 years. One of the Seal members called out Khalid in Arabic and when Khalid looked from balcony, he was shot. Miriam and Sumaiya tried to rush the Seals but were flicked against the wall.

Seal Robert O’Neill walked past the two girls into the room where Osama was and found Amal in front of him. Amal ran towards Robert but was shot by another Seal and she fainted feeling immense pain.

After taking down Osama with a barrage of bullets, Seals took his daughters and demanded identification from them. When Miriam gave false information, Sumaiya told her that she should not lie as these were Amricans and not Pakistanis. Once confirmed of Osama’s identity, Seals dragged Osama’s body downstairs with his head bumping on the steps.

“The end we had never dared to discuss had come and gone in minutes“, said Amal.

With inputs from: The Sunday Times UK