Laden's location was too much to be coincidence, Pak leaders were aware: Hillary Clinton

Senior officials in Islamabad knew about the hideout location of former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, claims Former Secretary of US State Hillary Clinton, asserting that it was too much of a coincidence that the compound in Abbottabad where the wanted terrorist was hiding, was surrounded by retired military professionals

Clinton, 68, the then US secretary of state, was the top adviser to President Barack Obama on the decision to kill the al- Qaeda leader on May 2, 2011. In an interview to the CNN broadcast on Monday, she said it was "just too much of a coincidence... that unusual-looking house would be built in that community near the military academy, surrounded by retired military professionals even though we could not prove it.

"There was never any evidence that we could uncover that led directly to the top of the Pakistani military and intelligence service. I believe Pakistanis knew," she said. CNN said Clinton will have to evaluate what is needed to continue the fight against al-Qaeda should she take the White House.

However, Obama's aides stressed that the next commander-in- chief will for sure need a blend of the fine-grained intelligence work and surgical force that defined the lethal 2011 strike against bin Laden​. The US Navy Seals' raid killed bin Laden in 2011 at his compound in a town near Pakistan army's elite training school.