US Missile Kills Son of Bin Laden

US thinks Tehran held Saad as leverage against attacks

(NEWSER) - American officials say Saad bin Laden, a son of Osama and an al-Qaeda operative, is free from years of house arrest in Iran and is now in Pakistan, the New York Times reports. The circumstances of his enforced stay in Iran are unclear, as are those surrounding his release, or possible escape. The US believes he and other al-Qaeda fighters were held by Iran in part to deter a terrorist attack on that country. More»

Documents show he was frustrated with al-Qaeda

(NEWSER) - By the time SEAL Team Six ended his life a year ago, Osama bin Laden had grown pretty frustrated with al-Qaeda. The US today released some of the documents SEALs made off with when they raided bin Laden's Abbottabad compound, the Washington Post reports, and they reveal that the terrorist leader was upset by his network's attacks on fellow Muslims—and lack of attacks on Western targets. He believed the attacks, along with a clumsy media operation, were turning Muslims against al-Qaeda. More»

Anniversary is nigh, and details keep trickling out

(NEWSER) - Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death, and current and former US officials are apparently marking the date by revealing more tidbits contained in the 10,000-plus documents recovered from computers, hard drives, and storage devices found in his Abbottabad hideout. Many of them are old-hat (he wanted to kill Obama , he thought about rebranding al-Qaeda ). Other highlights:

• A former intelligence official tells the Washington Post that, according to his writings, bin Laden was none-too-pleased about an idea cooked up by al-Qaeda-linked terrorists: to build a "human lawnmower" out of a pickup truck and rotating blades that could be driven into crowds. Bin Laden "felt it conflicted with his vision for what he wanted al-Qaeda to be."

First strikes in a month could hurt negotiations

(NEWSER) - Despite Pakistan's insistence that the US cease its drone strikes there , CIA drone missiles struck militant targets in the country for the first time in a month yesterday, the Washington Post reports. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry condemned the strikes, which killed four fighters linked to al-Qaeda. Just last week, Pakistan told US negotiators during talks in Islamabad that the US must unconditionally apologize for the November airstrikes that claimed the lives of 24 Pakistani soldiers before Pakistan would reopen NATO supply routes to Afghanistan. Some politicians now warn that the new strikes may set those negotiations back even further. More»

Abbottabad residents: Turn it into tourist attraction

(AP) - Under powerful floodlights and surrounded by rings of soldiers and police, heavy machines began today to demolish the three-story compound in northwestern Pakistan where Osama bin Laden lived for years and was killed by US commandos last May. Each blow helped eliminate a concrete reminder of the painful and embarrassing chapter in Pakistan's history that the al-Qaeda chief's discovery and death in a town not far from the nation's capital represented. More»