An allergy and not anguish may explain why Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had her hand to her mouth while watching the commando operation to kill Osama bin Laden, she said yesterday. A photo of Clinton, President Barack Obama and other senior officials watching the operation live from the White House situation room has become one of the most striking images of the raid that killed the al-Qaeda leader. <img alt="" src="/imagedata/2011/may/obama1.jpg" border="5" /> No coughing please: Clinton says she was trying to avoid a cough and hence her hand is pictured this way. File pic/AFP The photo shows Clinton with her hand to her mouth in what looks like a gesture of anxiety over the outcome of the operation. "Those were 38 of the most intense minutes. I have no idea what any of us were looking at that particular millisecond when the picture was taken," she said when asked about the photo during a visit to Rome. "I am somewhat sheepishly concerned that it was my preventing one of my early spring allergic coughs. So it may have no meaning whatsever," Clinton added. The photograph has become an unusual talking point of the whole operation, with allegations in some quarters that it was staged. It has been viewed almost two million times since being uploaded to the White House's official photo-sharing Flickr account and reprinted countless times by media outlets across the world.

Osama lookalike roams neighbourhood

An allergy and not anguish may explain why Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had her hand to her mouth while watching the commando operation to kill Osama bin Laden, she said yesterday. 

Allergy, not anguish in my Osama photo: Clinton

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Allergy, not anguish in my Osama photo: Clinton

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