Says they fled Afghanistan at the time of 9/11
Bin Laden's family secretly living in Iran: report
DUBAI (Al Arabiya)
Osama bin Laden's close relatives, including one of his wives and children, are living in a secret compound in Iran, press reports said on Tuesday.
The report said the group were being kept in a high-security compound outside Tehran and have been there for the past eight years, Britain's Times newspaper reported, quoting 29-year-old Omar bin Laden, who is reportedly the fourth-eldest son.
The relatives includes a wife and children who disappeared from bin Laden's Afghan camp at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and six of others of his children and 11 of his grandchildren.
" The Iranian Government did not know what to do with this large group of people that nobody else wanted, so they just kept them safe. For that we owe them much gratitude, and thank Iran from the depth of our heart "
Omar bin Laden
The paper reported that Omar was unsure about the whereabouts of his siblings and did not even know if they were alive until they called him in November.
They told him how they had fled Afghanistan just before the Sept. 11 attacks and walked to the Iranian border. They were taken to a walled compound outside Tehran where guards said they were not allowed to leave "for their own safety."
One of the children, a daughter called Iman, had recently escaped during a rare trip outside the compound and made her way to the Saudi Arabian Embassy. She is now living there while seeking permission to leave Iran.
Omar bin Laden said that his relatives lived as normal a life as possible, cooking meals, watching television and reading. They were allowed out only rarely for shopping trips.
As a number of families are being held in the compound some of the older siblings have been able to marry and have their own children.
"The Iranian Government did not know what to do with this large group of people that nobody else wanted, so they just kept them safe. For that we owe them much gratitude, and thank Iran from the depth of our heart," he said.
He now hopes that the family will be given permission to leave Iran and join his mother, brother and two sisters in Syria, or himself and his wife in Qatar.
Bin Laden's family secretly living in Iran: report
DUBAI (Al Arabiya)
Osama bin Laden's close relatives, including one of his wives and children, are living in a secret compound in Iran, press reports said on Tuesday.
The report said the group were being kept in a high-security compound outside Tehran and have been there for the past eight years, Britain's Times newspaper reported, quoting 29-year-old Omar bin Laden, who is reportedly the fourth-eldest son.
The relatives includes a wife and children who disappeared from bin Laden's Afghan camp at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and six of others of his children and 11 of his grandchildren.
" The Iranian Government did not know what to do with this large group of people that nobody else wanted, so they just kept them safe. For that we owe them much gratitude, and thank Iran from the depth of our heart "
Omar bin Laden
The paper reported that Omar was unsure about the whereabouts of his siblings and did not even know if they were alive until they called him in November.
They told him how they had fled Afghanistan just before the Sept. 11 attacks and walked to the Iranian border. They were taken to a walled compound outside Tehran where guards said they were not allowed to leave "for their own safety."
One of the children, a daughter called Iman, had recently escaped during a rare trip outside the compound and made her way to the Saudi Arabian Embassy. She is now living there while seeking permission to leave Iran.
Omar bin Laden said that his relatives lived as normal a life as possible, cooking meals, watching television and reading. They were allowed out only rarely for shopping trips.
As a number of families are being held in the compound some of the older siblings have been able to marry and have their own children.
"The Iranian Government did not know what to do with this large group of people that nobody else wanted, so they just kept them safe. For that we owe them much gratitude, and thank Iran from the depth of our heart," he said.
He now hopes that the family will be given permission to leave Iran and join his mother, brother and two sisters in Syria, or himself and his wife in Qatar.
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