WASHINGTON // US President Barack Obama has decided not to release the photos showing the body of Osama bin Laden after he was killed by US commandos, US television networks said yesterday.
In an interview with CBS, Mr Obama said he would not release post-mortem images of Osama bin Laden taken to prove his death," the network said in a statement. The CBS interview for its 60 Minutes program is due to air on Sunday and comes after US special forces stormed bin Laden's hideout in Pakistani.
US officials who have seen the pictures have described them as gruesome. Officials fear they could provoke anger and trigger a backlash against US personnel in the Muslim world.
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At a US Senate hearing yesterday, US attorney general Eric Holder said that the killing was an act of national self-defence and that bin Laden made no attempt to surrender.
"It was justified as an act of national self-defence," he told the Senate Judiciary Committee, citing bin Laden's admission of being involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"If he had surrendered, attempted to surrender, I think we should obviously have accepted that, but there was no indication that he wanted to do that and therefore his killing was appropriate," Mr Holder said.
Holder also told the committee that analysts were combing through material obtained from bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. The information might result in the addition of names to the US no-fly list of suspected terrorists, he said.
After the US revealed on Tuesday that bin Laden was unarmed when shot, some international officials have asked whether Washington had violated international law.
The revelation contradicted an earlier US account that he had participated in a firefight with the Americans. Al Arabiya television went further, suggesting the architect of the 9/11 attacks was first taken prisoner and then shot.
"A security source in the Pakistani security quoted the daughter of Osama bin Laden that the leader of al Qa'eda was not killed inside his house, but had been arrested and was killed later," the Arabic television station said.
A White House spokesman, Jay Carney, on Tuesday cited the "fog of war" to explain the initial misinformation. Bin Laden's killing and the swift burial of his body at sea have produced some criticism in the Muslim world and accusations Washington acted outside international law.
But there has been no sign of mass protests or violent reaction on the streets in south Asia or the Middle East, where Islamist militancy appears to have been eclipsed by pro-democracy movements sweeping the region.
Washington will weigh sensitivities in the Muslim world when it decides whether to release photographs of bin Laden's body, which could provide proof for sceptics of his death. Bin Laden was shot in the head.
"It's fair to say that it's a gruesome photograph," Mr Carney said. "I'll be candid. There are sensitivities here in terms of the appropriateness of releasing photographs."
There has been little questioning of the operation in the United States, where bin Laden's killing was greeted with street celebrations. A New York Times/CBS News poll showed US president Barack Obama's approval jumped 11 points to 57 per cent after the operation, though Americans feared revenge attacks by militants.
Pakistan has welcomed bin Laden's death, but its foreign ministry expressed deep concerns about the raid, which it called an "unauthorised unilateral action". The CIA said it kept Pakistan out of the loop because it feared bin Laden would be tipped off, highlighting the depth of mistrust between the two supposed allies.
The streets around bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad remained sealed off yesterday, with police and soldiers allowing only residents to pass through.
"It's a crime but what choice are you left with if I'm not handing over your enemy who is hiding in my house?" said Hussain Khan, a retired government official living nearby. "Obviously you will go and get him yourself."
Mr Carney insisted bin Laden resisted when US forces stormed his compound. He would not say how.
The New York Times quoted officials as saying commandos did not know if bin Laden or others were wearing suicide belts. The strike team opened fire in response to "threatening moves" as they reached the third-floor room where they found bin Laden, CIA director Leon Panetta told PBS television.
"The authority here was to kill bin Laden," he said. "And obviously, under the rules of engagement, if he had in fact thrown up his hands, surrendered and didn't appear to be representing any kind of threat, then they were to capture him. But they had full authority to kill him."
Some in Europe said bin Laden should have been captured and put on trial. The former West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt told German TV: "It was quite clearly a violation of international law."
Geoffrey Robertson, a prominent London human rights lawyer, said the killing "may well have been a cold-blooded assassination" that risked making bin Laden a martyr.
* Reuters with additional reporting by Bloomberg