Osama Bin Laden's 12-year-old daughter was present when U.S. forces shot and killed her father at a Pakistani compound, it has emerged.New details about the deadly Special Forces raid in Abbottabad emerged as U.S. officials backtracked on a claim made earlier that a wife of Osama Bin Laden acted as a human shield in an unsuccessful bid to save the Al Qaeda leader's life.
The fresh reports also revealed that Bin Laden was unarmed when he was shot in the face.
Officials had first said that Bin Laden had stood behind a younger woman - identified in some sources as one of his wives - while firing at U.S. troops with an AK-47.
But as fresh details emerged that up to 19 other people had been living inside the house, it was today unclear which woman had been killed.
Officials from Pakistan's main intelligence agency, the ISI, today gave new details about the operation.
An ISI official told the BBC 17 or 18 people were inside the compound at the time of the attack.
One of those in the building was a daughter of Bin Laden's, thought to be 12, who saw her father fatally shot by U.S. forces, the official claimed.
Further details about the raid were revealed as U.S. officials corrected earlier remarks which suggested a wife of Bin Laden's had died after being used as a human shield.
Initially, counter-terrorism official John Brennan had said. 'There was family at that compound, and there was a female who was, in fact, in the line of fire that reportedly was used as a shield to shield Bin Laden from the incoming fire.'
However, a different White House official said that account had turned out not to be the case. The youngest of Bin Laden's five wives, Amal Ahmed al-Sadah, 27, survived the raid but was wounded in the calf.
Mr Brennan has since told Fox News that, to his knowledge, Bin Laden's wife was injured rather than killed, adding it was unclear whether she and another female in the Abbottabad compound had been trying to attack U.S. personnel. Read More
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