Discoveries

Bin Laden's Family Found

Wife, children in secret Iranian compound.

Osama bin Laden is still at large, but one of his wives, six of his children, and 11 grandchildren, have been found living in a secret high-security compound outside of Tehran. Omar Osama bin Laden, 29, the fourth-eldest son of the al-Qaeda leader, said he didn't know his siblings were still alive until they called him in November. For the last eight years, the bin Ladens have been held in a walled compound, and were prevented from contacting the outside world as Iran repeatedly denied their residence within its borders. A week after she was able to call her brother, Iman, now 17, was able to escape during a rare outside trip and made her way to the Saudi Arabian Embassy where she is awaiting permission to leave Iran. Apparently, before 9/11, bin Laden senior's wife and children, then aged 7 to 20, fled his Afghan compound but were picked up at the Iranian border and taken to a walled compound "for their own safety." Omar hopes the rest of the family will be released and allowed to join himself in Qatar, or his mother in Syria. He called his family "innocent victims" of 9/11, the "babies and children" who "never had any education, never hurt a single soul, never trained with any weapons or ever been part of al Qaeda." He added, "We just want to be together as a family."