Osama bin Laden killing prompts US-Pakistan war of words

Pakistan says raid on Bin Laden's house was 'unauthorised' while CIA director defends decision not to inform Islamabad
Osama bin Laden's house in Abbottabad, which Pakistan's ISI agency says it raided in 2003
Osama bin Laden's house in Abbottabad, which Pakistan's ISI agency says it raided in 2003, although satellite imagery from 2004 shows an empty field on the site. Photograph: Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images

The war of words between Pakistan and the US in the wake of Osama bin Laden's killing has intensified, with senior officials on both sides trading barbs that underline their mutual mistrust, and the White House reversing its position on key details of the raid.

In Islamabad the Pakistani foreign ministry issued a hard-worded statement condemning the raid on Bin Laden's house as an "unauthorised unilateral action", and warned that this would not be tolerated in future.

In Washington, the CIA chief, Leon Panetta, said Pakistan was not informed of the assault on Abbottabad, a military garrison town, because US officials feared the al-Qaida leader could have been warned.

"It was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardise the mission. They might alert the targets," he told Time.

Pakistan's foreign secretary, Salman Bashir, described the American attitude as "disquieting", asserting that Pakistan had played a key role in the fight against Islamist militancy.

"Most of these things that have happened in terms of global anti-terror, Pakistan has played a pivotal role," he said. "So it's a little disquieting when we have comments like this."

Earlier, President Asif Ali Zardari said American claims were "baseless speculation … that doesn't reflect fact".

Meanwhile, American accounts of Bin Laden's death have come under intense scrutiny following White House admissions that early official reports claiming Bin Laden had been armed and cowered behind his wife during the assault were false.

Bin Laden's wife, earlier said to have been killed, survived and is in Pakistani custody. A Pakistani television station, Geo, published a copy of her passport, naming her as Amal Ahmed Abdel Fatteh, a Yemeni citizen.

The Obama administration is still mulling over how to release gory photos of Bin Laden's body to counter claims in the region that he has not been killed. "There are sensitivities about the appropriateness," said a spokesman, Jay Carney. "It is fair to say it is a gruesome photograph."

Panetta told NBC news: "I don't think there was any question that ultimately a photograph would be presented to the public."

Pakistan's military, the brunt of much of the speculation, has been largely quiet, although officials from the Inter-Services Intelligence have released some details about the raid based on interviews with Bin Laden relatives left behind by the US Navy Seal team.

A senior ISI official said that Bin Laden's 12-year-old daughter had witnessed her father being killed and confirmed his death. "She said she saw him being shot," said the official.

The official did not know the name of the girl, adding that between 18 and 19 people were in the compound at the time of the attack.

He said the ISI had raided the Abbottabad house as it was under construction in 2003 in search of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, an al-Qaida lieutenant who was eventually captured two years later.

But satellite imagery from 2004 shows an empty field on the site, and later images suggest that construction started a year later, shortly before US officials say Bin Laden and his family moved in.

Pakistan's role is coming under intense fire in the US Congress. Patrick Meehan, chair of a House subcommittee on counterterrorism and intelligence, expressed frustration, wondering aloud if the country was driven by "divided loyalty, complicity [or] incompetence". Democrat Jackie Speier called it "the elephant in the room".

Inside Pakistan, media coverage has focused on whether the government or military had advance knowledge of the raid – a sensitive issue given widespread anti-American sentiment and worries about breaches of sovereignty.

The foreign ministry statement said reports that US helicopters had taken off from Ghazi airbase inside Pakistan were "absolutely false and incorrect". It continued: "Neither any base or facility inside Pakistan was used by the US forces."

Questions have been raised about how US helicopters managed to enter Pakistani airspace, conduct a violent raid lasting 40 minutes, then return unhindered to Afghanistan.

The foreign ministry said the US choppers "made use of blind spots in the radar coverage due to hilly terrain", facilitated by "mountainous terrain, efficacious use of latest technology and 'nap of the earth' flying techniques".

Today's best video

Today in pictures