Osama Bin Laden’s Instructions to His Kids

Three wives and nine children were with the al-Qaeda leader when he was shot dead on May 2 last year.

In an interview published on Sunday, his brother-in-law said they were being held in a three-bedroom flat in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, guarded by the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) agency.

Zakaria al-Sadah said he had recently been reunited with his sister, bin Laden’s Yemeni fifth wife Amal, 29, who was shot in the knee during the raid by US Navy Seals.

He revealed that the world’s most wanted man had told his children “not to follow him down the road to jihad”. “He told his own children and grandchildren, ‘Go to Europe and America and get a good education’,” Mr Sadah told The Sunday Times.

…

These children have seen their father killed and they need a caring environment, not a prison – whatever you think of their father and what he has done,” said Mr Sadah.

Amal and Bin Laden’s other wives, Khairiah and Siham Sabar who are both from Saudi Arabia, had gone on hunger strike in protest at their incarceration, Mr Sadah added.

“The children will not eat also, as they are too traumatised,” Mr Sadah said. “They have heaters for the winter cold and restricted access to television. But they have hardly seen the sun in nine months. They feel as if they are shouting in the dark.”

Full report