Osama bin Laden's Son May Have Escaped

Widows' claim adds to confusion over raid
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 10, 2011 3:33 PM CDT
Osama bin Laden's Son, Hamza, May Have Escaped Compound During Raid
A screen shot from YouTube of Hamza bin Laden in 2001.   (YouTube)

One of Osama bin Laden's sons may have escaped the raid by Navy SEALs, according to ABC News and British papers the Telegraph and Daily Mail. It seems more guesswork than anything at this point, though. Bin Laden's three widows have reportedly told Pakistani authorities that one son has not been seen since the raid. The best guess is that they're referring to bin Laden's youngest son, Hamza, thought to be around 19 or 20 and a close confidante of his father. His mother is one of the detained widows.

Initial reports had him killed in the raid, but that might have been confusion over the killing of a different son, Khalid. In any event, Pakistani officials agree that someone appears to be missing. “We don’t know if it was his son," an unidentified source tells the Telegraph. "Someone, one person may have been in the compound that we now cannot account for if—we believe what we are being told." (More Osama bin Laden dead stories.)

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