My World Earth: Osama bin Laden's family missing since 9/11 attacks found living in secret compound in Iran

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Osama bin Laden's family missing since 9/11 attacks found living in secret compound in Iran

Eight years of uncertainty over the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden's closest family members has been blown open by a relative's admission that they are living in a secret compound in Iran.

One of the terror mastermind's wives, six of his children and 11 of his grandchildren are living in a high-security compound outside Tehran.

It exposes as false the repeated denials by the country's government that members of the family were living in Iran.Omar Ossama bin Laden, the fourth-eldest of Osama's sons, claims he was unaware of his brothers and sisters' location, or even whether they were still alive, until they phoned him in November.

He told the Times that he wants the group to be allowed to leave Iran, claiming they are the 'forgotten victims of 9/11'.

The 29-year-old said they told him they fled Afghanistan just before the September 11 attacks, walking to the Iran border. They were then taken to the compound, where guards told them they could not leave 'for their own safety'.

Omar's siblings Saad, Ossman, Muhammad, Fatma, Hamza, Iman and Bakr - aged between 20 and seven at the time - were among the group.
There had been reports that Saad and Muhammad had engaged in terrorism before being killed, but relatives say Muhammad remains safe in the compound and Saad lived there until a year ago, when he ran away to try to find his mother.

A week after contacting Omar, Iman escaped during a rare outing and sought asylum in the Saudi Arabian embassy while she seeks permission to leave Iran.

Mr bin Laden said the group, who were joined by other Afghan families in the compound, lived as normal a life as possible, and some had married other residents of the makeshift community and had babies.

He said: 'The Iranian Government did not know what to do with this large group of people that nobody else wanted, so they just kept them safe.

'For that we owe them much gratitude and thank them from the depth of our heart.'

Mr bin Laden wants his family to be given permission to join his mother and other siblings in Syria or he and his wife in Qatar.
'They are all innocent victims, just the same as anyone else hurt by the dreadful events of 9/11 and 7/7,' he said.

'These babies and children have never had any education, never hurt a single soul, never trained with any weapons or ever been part of al-Qaeda. We just want to be together as a family.

'I have now got 11 nieces and nephews, born either in Afghanistan or Iran that I have never seen.

'Some may find this story unnerving, but the child can't be judged by the sins of the father.'