U.S.-Pakistan relationship faces strain

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan -- Osama bin Laden made his final stand in a small Pakistani city where three army regiments with thousands of soldiers are based not far from the capital, a location that is increasing suspicions in Washington that Islamabad may have been sheltering him.

The United States acted alone in yesterday's helicopter raid, did not inform Pakistan until it was over and pointedly did not thank Pakistan at the end of a successful operation. All this suggests more strain in a relationship that was already tense because of U.S. accusations that Pakistan has been supporting Afghan militants and Pakistani anger over American drone attacks and spy activity.

Pakistani intelligence agencies are normally very sharp in sniffing out the presence of foreigners in small cities.

Sen. Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said bin Laden's location meant Pakistan had "a lot of explaining to do."

"I think this tells us once again that unfortunately Pakistan at times is playing a double game," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a member of the Armed Services Committee.

However, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said counterterror cooperation with Pakistan helped lead the United States to bin Laden. Speaking to reporters at the State Department on Monday, Clinton thanked Pakistan for its cooperation and said that country "has contributed greatly to our efforts to dismantle al-Qaida." And a senior Pakistan intelligence official dismissed speculation that bin Laden was being protected. "We don't explain it. We just did not know -- period," he said.

Suspicions that Pakistan harbors militants have been a major source of mistrust between the CIA and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency -- though the two agencies have cooperated in the arrests of al-Qaida leaders since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, including several in towns and cities outside the border area.

For years, Western intelligence said bin Laden was most likely holed up in a cave along the remote Pakistan-Afghan border. But the 10-year hunt for the world's most-wanted man ended in a fortified mansion in a middle-class area of Abbottabad, less than 35 miles from the capital, Islamabad. The $1-million compound, which an Obama administration official said was "custom-built to hide someone of significance," ws about a half-mile from the Kakul Military Academy, one of several military installations in Abbottabad.

"Personally I feel that he must have thought it was the safest area," said Asad Munir, a former ISI station chief in the northwest. "Abbottabad is a place no one would expect him to live."