Panetta believes Pakistan knew Osama hideout

WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta is acknowledging publicly for the first time that a Pakistani doctor provided key information to the US in advance of the successful Navy SEAL assault on Osama bin Laden’s compound last May.

Panetta told CBS’s ”60 Minutes,” in a profile to be broadcast on Sunday, that Shakil Afridi helped provide intelligence for the raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad.

Afridi ran a vaccination program for the CIA to collect DNA and verify bin Laden’s presence in the compound. He has since been charged by Pakistan with treason. Panetta said he is ”very concerned” for the doctor.

Panetta still believes someone in authority in Pakistan knew where Osama bin Laden was hiding before US forces went in to find him.

Intelligence reports found Pakistani military helicopters had passed over the compound in Abbottabad where US Navy SEALs discovered and killed bin Laden last year, according to excerpts of Panetta’s interview.

“I personally have always felt that somebody must have had some sense of what was happening at this compound. Don’t forget, this compound had 18-foot walls… It was the largest compound in the area.

“So you would have thought that somebody would have asked the question, ‘What the hell’s going on there?’” Panetta told CBS.

The Pentagon chief said that concern played a significant factor in Washington not warning Pakistani officials of the impending raid: “It concerned us that, if we, in fact, brought (Pakistan) into it, that — they might…give bin Laden a heads up,” he said.

Panetta acknowledged he did not have “hard evidence” Pakistan knew of the Al-Qaeda leader’s whereabouts.

US Navy SEALs killed Bin Laden on May 2 in a raid on a compound in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad, north of Islamabad, and later buried the 9/11 mastermind at sea.

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Car bomb kills 28 at Baghdad hospital

BAGHDAD: A car bomb near a funeral procession outside a hospital in east Baghdad killed at least 28 people and wounded 50 on Friday, a doctor at the hospital said.

An interior ministry official confirmed the explosion in Zafraniyah, which struck at 11:00 am (0800 GMT), but said it was caused by a suicide attacker driving an explosives-packed car.

The blast hit the funeral procession of Mohammed al-Maliki, a real estate agent who was killed along with his wife and son a day earlier in the west Baghdad neighbourhood of Yarmuk, the doctor and interior ministry official said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.

The procession had collected Maliki’s body and was transporting it for the funeral when the explosion struck.

Violence in Iraq is down from its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common.

More than 200 people have been killed in attacks since American forces completed their pullout on December 18, according to an AFP tally.

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‘Militias, army torturing detainees in Libya’

TRIPOLI: Libya’s regular army and array of militias have been torturing loyalists of slain dictator Muammar Qadhafi, several of whom have been killed in custody, human rights groups charged on Thursday.

Amnesty International said that despite promises, Libya’s new rulers have made “no progress to stop the use of torture”, as Doctors Without Borders suspended their work in the third-largest city Misrata over similar claims.

Their accusations came after a top UN official raised concerns that militias composed of former rebels who helped topple Qadhafi were posing an increasing security risk as they repeatedly clashed with each other.

“Several detainees have died after being subjected to torture in Libya in recent weeks and months amid widespread torture and ill-treatment of suspected pro-Qadhafi fighters and loyalists,” London-based Amnesty International said in a statement.

It said its delegates met detainees held in Tripoli, in Misrata and in smaller towns such as Ghariyan who showed visible signs of torture inflicted in recent days and weeks.

“The torture is being carried out by officially recognised military and security entities, as well by a multitude of armed militias operating outside any legal framework,” it said.

Donatella Rouvera, senior adviser at Amnesty, said in the statement that it was “horrifying to find that there has been no progress to stop the use of torture”.—AFP

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