The Al-Arabiya television station today reported, that Osama bin Laden’s 12 year old daughter claimed that he was captured and then shot by US forces. Senior Pakistani intelligence officials told the television station this is what the girl has told them.

The claims have been given more credence because of a number of embarrassing corrections by the US administration.

The White House now admits that bin Laden did not use his wife as a human shield as was previously suggested. They have also now said that bin Laden was unarmed when he died.

Commentators have speculated that the US may have wanted Bin Laden dead as opposed to alive. It is thought that during any trial embarrassing links may have emerged regarding bin Laden’s links with the US in the 1980s (when the CIA supported Afghan resistance fighters against the then Russian occupation) Believers in this theory are likely to jump upon this latest claim as proof.

The US has also admitted that bin Laden’s wife is not dead. She is currently in a military hospital being treated for a shot to the leg.

US forces had intended to take Ahmed al-Sadah , the youngest of bin Laden’s five wives, with them. However because one of their helicopters crashed during the operation they did not have space for her.

The US believes she could provide vital information about links to bin Laden. Information which could be used to break up terrorist cells and prevent any reprisal attacks. However in a surprising twist Pakistan has now indicated it will refuse to hand her over to the US, potentially escalating the row between the two countries. Pakistan has come in for significant criticism for being unable to identify bin Laden’s hiding place sooner, this despite the fact he was living a huge complex just yards away from the Pakistan military academy.

Pakistan has indicated that all those currently being held will eventually be sent back to their countries of origin.