US keen to get Osama’s Wife no 5

Amal, who took a bullet in her leg to shield her terrorist husband, is a valuable intel resource for the US

US keen to get Osama's Wife no 5

Amal, who took a bullet in her leg to shield her terrorist husband, is a valuable intel resource for the US

After last Monday's raid on Osama's hideout in Abbottabad, the US navy SEALs had left Amal al Sadah behind. But now a diplomatic tussle has erupted between the US and Pakistan over heru00a0 custody. According to media reports, Pakistan turned down the American demand to interrogate her and even rejected the its request to see her in a military hospital in Rawalpindi where she was being treated. The navy SEALs had shot her in the calf of her leg while she was apparently pushed in front by her husband on seeing the commandos.

For better or worse: The Abbottabad house where Amal had reportedly
been living with Osama bin Laden for the past five years. Pic/AFP

Osama bin Laden chose his fifth wife Amal al-Sadah from Yemen, his ancestral land. She married the terror leader at the age of 17 and lived with him till his last day. She was with him in his final moments, either willingly trying to act as a human shield or pushed in front by her cowering husband.

But there is more to her than whether she was a willing human shield for Osama or not. Going by the accounts reported in the media, the story of how Amal (24) found her way back to bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan from Yemen could well have revealed crucial clues as to whether or not Pakistani authorities had been aware of the al-Qaeda leader's presence in their country. And if the US officials had been tracking her at the time, they may have found bin-Laden sooner. Although bin Laden's body and that of his son Hamza were taken away for burial in the Arabian Sea, Amal was left behind along with her young daughter, Safiyah, who Pakistani officials say witnessed her father's killing. They are now recovering in a military hospital in Rawalpindi, and they have released Amal's passport photograph.

As reported by Time magazine, Amal in a 2002 interview to a Saudi woman's magazine explained how, after the 9/11 attacks, she had made her way out of Afghanistan back to Yemen with assistance from Pakistani officials.

"When the US bombing of Afghanistan started, we moved to a mountainous area with some children and lived in one of the caves for two months until one of his sons came with a group of tribesmen and took us with them. I did not know that we were going to Pakistan until they handed us over to the Pakistani government," she is quoted by the magazine. So far, Pakistan is refusing to let US officials anywhere near Amal, for she may know too many uncomfortable truths.

Marriage to Osama
Amal had reportedly married the terror ring leader when she was 17 and Osama was 43. The marriage was reportedly arranged by a prominent Al Qaeda leader in Yemen called Sheikh Mohammed Rashed Saeed Ismail, to strengthen the terrorist's links with the Gulf.

She stood by his side all along, and was with him during the last 10 years when he was the most wanted criminal in the world. Given her long association with the Osama, it is likely that she may have insightsu00a0 about the terror world, hence the US's interest in her.u00a0

'Pious Osama'
Ismail, the matchmaker, convinced Amal's parents to marry her to Osama, by telling them that the groom was "famous and known for his piousness, humbleness, religion, strong belief, generosity and goodness. I told them that he would be a good husband for your daughter." Ismail said, "Even at a young age, she (Amal) is very religious and believes in the things that Osama, a man who is very religious and pious believes."
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