Report: CIA to search bin Laden's compound

May 26, 2011, 21:06 GMT

Washington - The Central Intelligence Agency has been given permission by Pakistani officials to search the complex where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden spent years hiding before being killed in a US raid, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

The CIA will use sophisticated equipment to search for materials that could be hidden inside walls or buried under the compound in Abbottabad, the newspaper reported citing unnamed US officials.

The CIA had been monitoring the compound for months before US special forces entered and killed bin Laden earlier this month, but agents have never been inside.

Navy SEALs removed a vast cache of documents and computer drives from the site, but officials said they want to be sure nothing hidden was missed. The SEALs carried out the secret raid without Pakistan's knowledge and made a hurried departure.

CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell organized the cooperation for the search during a visit to Pakistan last month, during which he met with Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the chief of Pakistan's main intelligence service.

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