By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington : A “complacent” Osama bin Laden, confident that he would not get caught from his hideout in Pakistan, apparently did not have a ready escape plan, US media reports citing officials say.
Several key indicators bolster officials’ initial impression that Osama bin Laden had a support network in Pakistan that resulted in his staying in one location for the last several years, feeling comfortable he would not get caught, reported CNN.
The channel noted that officials, familiar with the latest assessment of the US raid on the Al Qaeda leader’s hideout in Abbottabad, just 50 km from Islamabad, point out there is no apparent sign that Osama had a ready escape plan.
He did not appear to have the means or make an attempt to destroy the reams and gigabytes of documents before US Navy commandos assaulted his compound, sources cited by CNN said.
“It looks like he became complacent,” one of the officials was quoted as saying. “There is a lot more material than we expected to find here.”
Osama, one of the officials noted, had only three men with him in his Abbottabad compound at the time of the assault.
US officials have said that aside from Osama, the three men who lived in the compound and who were killed in the raid were Osama’s son and two trusted couriers.
“What does all that mean?” the official said. “How could he be so comfortable living in that location for that period of time with so little security?”
But the number of men present is clearly open to interpretation. Other officials cited by CNN have speculated the low number of men on the compound could have been an effort to deflect attention.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])