Bin Laden's Youngest Wife 'Easygoing and Confident'

Family described as conservative but not extremist
By Mark Russell,  Newser Staff
Posted May 8, 2011 6:30 AM CDT
Bin Laden's Youngest Wife 'Easygoing and Confident'
Osama bin Laden's fifth wife, Amal al-Sadah, was described as "easygoing and confident," from a good Yemeni family.   (YouTube)

Osama bin Laden's youngest wife, who was injured last week in the raid that killed the al-Qaeda leader, was a "very good overall person," from a large, respected Yemeni family, a relative tells CNN. "The family had no extremist views, even though they came from a conservative background." The marriage was apparently a political alliance, to help bin Laden strengthen ties with the country where his father was born. Yemen's government is reportedly pressuring the family to keep silent.

Amal al-Sadah was just 18 when she married 43-year-old bin Laden in 2000, becoming his fifth wife. She was "a quiet, polite, easygoing and confident teenager," said the relative. The marriage was arranged by a matchmaker, and bin Laden gave the family at $5,000 dowry. For the past five years, al-Sadah apparently never left the Pakistan compound where bin Laden had been living with eight of his children and five relatives from other families. The couple's daughter, Safiyah, born just after 9/11, reportedly witnessed her father's killing. Pakistani authorities are still holding all the relatives for questioning, notes AP. Click to see the newly released videos of bin Laden in the compound. (More Osama bin Laden stories.)

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