DUBAI: Six of Osama Bin Laden’s children and one of his wives, missing since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, are under house arrest in Iran, newspapers reported on Wednesday, quoting a family member.
“Until a month ago we did not know where the siblings were,” Omar Bin Laden, 29, the fourth son of the Al-Qaeda chief, told Asharq Al-Awsat Arabic daily.
Omar Bin Laden, who lives in Qatar, said he only learnt his family members were still alive after receiving a call last month from his brother Uthman, who had been lent a mobile phone by a young Iranian.
Saad, 29, Uthman, 25, Fatima, 22, Hamza, 20, and Bakr, 15, along with Hamza’s mother Khairiya are under house arrest in Tehran, Omar said, while a sixth sibling, Iman, 17, recently sought asylum at the Saudi embassy in Tehran.
Omar’s brother Saad was rumoured to have been killed in a US drone strike 18 months ago in Pakistan.
