U.S. clarifies bin Laden shooting details

U.S. officials told The Associated Press that the Navy SEALs who stormed Osama bin Laden's compound shot and killed him after they saw him appear to lunge for a weapon.

The officials, who were briefed on the operation, said several weapons were found in the room where the terror chief died, including AK-47s and personal side arms.

The officials also said a U.S. commando grabbed a woman who charged toward the group. The fear, the officials said, was that she might have been wearing a suicide vest. The Navy SEAL pulled the woman away from his fellow SEALs.

The officials further said the two dozen SEALs involved in the operation are back at their home base outside Virginia Beach, Va., and that the extensive debriefing they underwent is complete.

In other developments Wednesday:

Pakistan stepped up its attempt to persuade the world that it didn't know where bin Laden was located. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that anyone who claimed his country hid bin Laden was "color blind." During a visit to Paris, Gilani said that Pakistan shared intelligence with numerous countries in the fight against terrorism and had "excellent cooperation" with the United States.

Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said the discovery of bin Laden so close to an army installation was "embarrassing to them" but that institutional entities such as the army, intelligence service and government likely didn't know about bin Laden's presence.

Attorney General Eric Holder, in an appearance on Capitol Hill, sought to underscore the legality of the shooting. "Let me make something very clear: The operation in which Osama bin Laden was killed was lawful," Holder told senators. The raid "was justified as an action of national self-defense" against "a lawful military target," he said.

Holder also said the team that carried out the raid had been trained to take bin Laden alive if he was willing to surrender. "It was a kill-or-capture mission," he said. "He made no attempt to surrender."

Bin Laden had about 500 euros sewn into his clothes when he was killed and had phone numbers with him when he was killed, U.S. officials said, a possible indication that the terrorist mastermind was ready to flee his compound on short notice.

Pakistani authorities told local media that they arrested, then released, a contractor who had worked on the bin Laden compound in Abbottabad, according to The Washington Post. No details were provided, but it appeared that the contractor likely worked on the residence as it was being built.

The Associated Press, citing property records, said the compound was purchased by a man named Mohammad Arshad for $48,000, in four stages during 2004 and 2005.