{"id":32629,"date":"2020-06-26T11:14:51","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T11:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/06\/26\/pakistans-prime-minister-pokes-us-says-bin-laden-martyred-during-navy-seal-raid\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:48:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:48:56","slug":"pakistans-prime-minister-pokes-us-says-bin-laden-martyred-during-navy-seal-raid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/flashpoints\/2020\/06\/26\/pakistans-prime-minister-pokes-us-says-bin-laden-martyred-during-navy-seal-raid\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan\u2019s prime minister pokes U.S., says bin Laden \u2018martyred\u2019 during Navy SEAL raid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Islamabad (AP) \u2014 Pakistan\u2019s prime minister said Thursday the United States \u201cmartyred\u201d the al-Qaida leader and mastermind of the 9\/11 attack<\/a>s, Osama bin Laden, a term that reflected a subtle jab at Washington as it\u2019s mainly used for honorable figures slain in battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imran Khan delivered the jab in a rambling budget speech in parliament, attacking his predecessors\u2019 foreign policies and saying that Pakistan\u2019s partnership with the United States in the war on terror was a mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khan also said Washington used abusive language against Pakistan, blaming Islamabad for its failures in neighboring Afghanistan. Most of all, the U.S. refused to tell Islamabad of its operation against bin Laden in 2011 before carrying out the Navy SEALs nighttime raid. The special operations force swooped into Pakistan\u2019s military garrison town of Abbottabad<\/a> in the middle of the night on May 2, 2011, killing bin Laden and several of his operatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe sided with the U.S. in the War on Terror but they came here and killed him, martyred him and … used abusive language against us (and) did not inform us (of the raid), despite the fact that we lost 70,000 people in the war on terror,\u201d Khan told Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
This image taken from video released by Qatar’s Al-Jazeera televison broadcast on Friday Oct. 5, 2001 is said to show Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., at an undisclosed location. Al-Jazeera did not say whether the image was taken before or after the Sept. 11 attacks or how they obtained it. The Obama administration is releasing the last of three installments of documents belonging to Osama bin Laden that were found in the terrorist\u2019s secret compound in 2011. (AP Photo\/Al-Jazeera via APTN)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Washington has repeatedly accused Pakistan of harboring the Afghan Taliban and giving safe haven to the feared Haqqani network, a Taliban affiliate that has been blamed for some major attacks in Afghanistan over the years and declared a terrorist group by the United States. U.S. Adm. Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had claimed the Haqqani network was run by Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency, known by its acronym ISI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pakistan denied the accusations, saying Washington was blaming Pakistan for the failure of the U.S.-led coalition’s 150,000 soldiers to defeat the Taliban, who are now at their strongest since being toppled in 2001 and rule or hold sway in about 50% of Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe way we supported America in the war on terror, and the insults we had to face in return. … They blamed us for every failure in Afghanistan. They openly held us responsible because they did not succeed in Afghanistan,\u201d Khan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t