The Obama administration is presenting the successful Osama bin Laden hit as an epic American solo operation, unparalleled in military and intelligence annals, while leaning hard on Islamabad to sack certain officers of the powerful military intelligence army ISI including its head Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, accusing them of keeping the dead al Qaeda leader hidden for eight years. Islamabad is fighting both US tactics. debkafile: The feud could boomerang against Washington as a Taliban revenge attack.

The White House is fighting a losing battle for credibility: Its first statements on the special forces' raid which killed the al Qaeda leader in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 2 are proving incorrect: Washington has been forced to admit that bin Laden was not armed when he was killed and his wife was not used as a human shield. This further fuels Arab-Muslim skepticism about the affair, especially with Pakistan actively challenging the US version with the help of the survivors in its custody.

US sources report that Osama bin Laden was buried at sea to avoid creating a shrine for jihadist terrorists to visit.

US sources disclose that Abbottabad, where a squadron of US Seals killed the al Qaeda leader Sunday night, May 2, is a Pakistani garrison town housing a large military base. His walled villa was just 100 meters away from a military academy and 120 kilometers from the capital, Islamabad.