Pakistani report: Osama bin Laden lived undetected for nine years

ISLAMABAD, July 8 (UPI) -- Osama bin Laden lived undetected for nine years in Pakistan before he was killed in a U.S. military raid, a Pakistani report released Monday indicated.

The report, conducted by Pakistani leaders after the 2011 raid by U.S. Navy SEALS on bin Laden's compound in the garrison city of Abottabad, was first published by al-Jazeera.

It blamed Pakistani military and political officials for "gross incompetence" and "collective failures" for bin Laden to live undetected for so long in six different locations.

In the raid, bin Laden and four others were killed, and several people were injured.

Al-Jazeera said the Pakistani government buried the findings and the report surface only after the news outlet went public.

Pakistan's military and political leaders were furious at the United States' unilateral action and set up the commission to examine "how the U.S. was able to execute a hostile military mission which lasted around three hours deep inside Pakistan," al-Jazeera reported.

The commission also wanted to examine how the country's "intelligence establishment apparently had no idea that an international fugitive of the renown or notoriety of [Osama bin Laden] was residing in [Abbottabad]."

Among the 201 people the commission interviewed were members of bin Laden's family, the chief of Pakistan's intelligence agency, and senior provincial, federal and military officials.

Among other things, the report said bin Laden initially traveled to Pakistan's tribal areas after fleeing the battle of Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan, The Hill reported. The wife of a bin Laden courier said that in 2002 she traveled with a "clean-shaven Arab" to Swat Valley.

The wife told the commission their car once was stopped for speeding with bin Laden inside, but the matter was settled quickly.