Pakistani authorities have reduced the house where Osama bin Laden
lived for years before he was killed by U.S. commandos to rubble,
destroying a concrete symbol of the country's association with one of
the world's most reviled men.
Workers completed the demolition job in the garrison town of Abbottabad in northwest Pakistan on Monday.
The
al-Qaida leader moved into the three-story house in 2005. Acting on
intelligence gathered by the CIA, a team of U.S. commandos flew in by
helicopter from Afghanistan and killed bin Laden on May 2 before dumping
his body at sea hours later.
The operation left Pakistan's army
in the awkward position of explaining why it had not detected the U.S.
raid, and how bin Laden was able to live in the town without its
knowledge. U.S. officials have said they have found no evidence that
senior Pakistani officials were in the know about bin Laden's
whereabouts.
Mechanized backhoe vehicles and construction workers began pulling down the house on Saturday night, working under floodlights.
An Associated Press photographer said Monday the job was completed, save for a section of its boundary walls.
The house stood less than half a mile (one kilometer) from one of the Pakistan army's top training academies.
Authorities
never allowed journalists inside the building, and starting from a few
days after the raid stopped them from even getting close to it.
Officials
did not explain why the house was destroyed. Some residents of
Abbottabad thought it should be a tourist attraction, although given the
sensitivities surrounding the property it was hard to see the
government developing it as one.
Property documents show the land
was owned by a man who later served as a courier for bin Laden. He is
believed to have been killed during the raid.
Last year, several
foreigners were briefly detained for trying to see it, including the
Danish ambassador and his wife. U.S. commandos took computers, books and
other intelligence materials from the building after killing bin Laden,
and American officials were allowed to visit it in the weeks that
followed.
Al-Qaida-inspired or affiliated groups have killed thousands in the country over the last few years.
Later
Monday a bomb exploded outside a rally held by northwestern Pakistan's
dominant political party, killing five people, police officer Hussain
Khan said.
The blast took place in the town of Nowshera in the northwest's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa district.
Khan said the device went off when a motorcade of officials from the Awami National Party was leaving the building.
The province's Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti had addressed the meeting but had left the venue by helicopter. AP
