How The Bin Ladens Lived

The BBC's Orla Guerin looks around the perimeter of Bin Laden's compound.

A fortified compound in a quiet suburb was home to the world's most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden, and a few close associates. The building was also reportedly home to several of his wives, numerous children and domestic helpers. But what kind of life did they lead? They certainly lived an isolated existence and had barely any contact with their affluent and congenial neighbours, residents in the area told the BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Abbottabad. Their desire for privacy was so marked that people left them well alone. They did not mix with others and were never seen at local wedding celebrations or other community occasions. A reporter from Pakistan's Express TV even tweeted that one neighbour said when local children hit a cricket ball into the compound, they were not allowed to retrieve it. Every now and then what looked like bullet-proof vehicles would go in and out of the compound, but security gates would slide shut immediately afterwards, locals told the BBC.

Goat Delivery

But living in an urban area such as Abbottabad does require some contact with the outside world and a few people have spoken about the Bin Ladens' habits and routines. A newspaper hawker told the BBC that he delivered newspapers to the compound every day and at the end of each month his bill was promptly paid, always by the same man.

He never stepped inside the compound and his impression was that only one person lived there but, he added, that every now and then he saw a red pick-up vehicle, with a goat inside, being driven to the compound. US officials said their long-term observation of the compound revealed that the inhabitants burned their rubbish inside the compound, rather than leaving it outside to be collected. Another neighbour also told the BBC's M Ilyas Khan that there was a domestic helper who lived in the area and who went into the compound to clean and to work in the kitchen. She divulged very few details but said that she never saw Osama Bin Laden in the house. The residents of the compound clearly employed a number of domestic helpers. Abbottabad hospital staff have told the BBC Urdu service that among those being treated in the wake of the raid are two women believed to be maids employed by the family.

The area around the compound was opened up to the media on Tuesday and among those reporters in the vicinity was Associated Press correspondent Nahal Toosi, who was tweeting her observations.

"I am in a bldg across from cpd. Looks like servants quarters. Piles of clothes, pillows on floor. Broken clock on ground. Stopped at 2:20," he reports. He also notes a mouldy lentil stew in a pot, half-eaten bread and an old television set.

"I report, you decide," she tweets, when she observes a bicycle covered with fake flowers now parked outside one of the entry ways.

Who else lived there?

US officials say that satellite spying technology allowed them to determine that a family was living in the house with two men. Two Pakistani men were seen around the compound, according to BBC Urdu's Rahimullah Yusufzai, who has also kept in touch with a network of local journalists. He says all their researches indicate the house was being rented by two brothers. These are not to be confused with the "couriers" that the CIA appears to have been tracking. These two men, according to neighbours, seemed to be in control of the household.

When our correspondent asked the neighbour if there were any children living in the compound, he said that there were none. But then his 14-year-old son interjected saying that there were a few boys who lived in that compound and that they used to go to one of the shops in the area to buy goods. But, he told our reporter, he never spoke to the boys. Other media reports say that children from the compound were despatched to buy food from local shops.

Kitchen Garden

As media access to the area increases, all kinds of observations have been trickling out.

Mr Yusufzai was told by other neighbours that one man from the house would go out on his own for a large shopping trip in which he purchased many items

Local police told al Jazeera's Imtiaz Tyab that there was a kitchen garden and some chickens were kept too, indicating, they say, that it was a self-sufficient compound where they could grow their own food

Nick Robertson of CNN observed on Twitter that neighbours say the "Osama entourage" passed themselves off as gold merchants

Sky News quotes Jibran Khan who said that tall Pakistani men lived in the house and said that a friend of his who ran into the men at a local bakery said they were always very courteous.

One point on which all observers are united is that the women were rarely seen. Most people assumed that this is because they were Pashtun, and they tend to observe strict purdah. The children of the compound were not thought to be attending school, neighbours told local journalists. They assumed that they were simply schooled at home - although this cannot be verified. Staff at the hospital where the injured were taken told local journalists that the wounded from the compound speak Pashto and Arabic.

Waziristan 'Mansion'

The spacious and prosperous homes in these areas are known as "havelis" and, according to local journalists speaking to the BBC, the Bin Laden home was known as "Waziristan Haveli" or "mansion" - named after the semi-autonomous tribal area where many until now assumed Bin Laden was sheltering. Although the compound sits in relative isolation, it is situated in an up-and-coming area and a number of people have recently built their homes nearby. But Pakistan's Express TV says that people in Abbottabad report it is common to go for up to 16 hours a day without electricity.

Satellite images between 2005 and 2011 reflect the change in the area and also show how the compound itself has expanded as more outbuildings, walls and privacy features have been built. And there are notices placed on Pakistani property and land websites, advertising land for sale in the "delightful climate and surroundings" of Abbottabad. Land for sale can also be found in the Hashmi Colony area, very close to the Bin Laden compound. The area is seen as secure and stable. Just a few hundred metres north is Pakistan's prestigious Kakul Military Academy. And property is available here too. According to the seller, "it's a very secuir [sic] place near army farm house army jeeps takes 100 rounds in a day so very safe place to live". Details from US officials reveal that there were no phone or internet lines into the house and that there were very few windows. US officials also refer to a private 7ft high wall surrounding a room on the second floor of the building. US officials released an image of a bedroom on the second floor, showing a double bed strewn with pillows and cushions. The floors are blood-stained: this is said to be the room in which Bin Laden was killed.