NEIGHBOUR HELL FROM; THE HIDING PLACE.(News)

Byline: ANDREW GREGORY

NESTLED among tall, leafy trees in an unassuming town, the EUR700,000 home is eight times the size of nearby houses.

The imposing mansion has 18ft-high perimeter walls which are topped with barbed wire. And it has a 7ft wall on a third-floor terrace.

CIA chiefs think the barrier was there to enable a very tall man to go outside without being seen. Osama bin Laden was said to be 6ft 6in.

Residents of Abbottabad last night told of their shock at discovering that the world's most wanted man had lived among them with one of his wives.

Shabbir Khan, 40, said the threestorey building near a school, cinema, church and golf club in the middleclass town was a "luxurious mansion". He added: "I'd always thought two men lived there. I hadn't seen much action over the past few months.

"The compound is surrounded by thick bushes and barbed wire so you can't see much. As far as I knew there was hardly anyone living there.

"It was like five-star accommodation and there were cameras installed inside the house. Very exclusive."

Neighbours say Land Cruisers were spotted driving to and from the home which had become a fortress. Qasim Khan, 18, who lives opposite the compound, said he saw two Pakistani men going in and out of the mansion over the years. He said one of them was fat and had a beard.

He added: "I never saw anybody else with the two men, but some kids sometimes would accompany them. I never saw any foreigner."

Irrfan Malik, 32, said: "It's no surprise we didn't know what was going on in that house. All the residents here are high society people who don't like to gossip or talk about one another. The fact that this family didn't mingle is no different to anyone else. There was no reason to suspect them, especially of harbouring a terrorist."

Actor Salman Riaz revealed that five months ago he tried to shoot a film scene next to the compound but was made to stop by two men.

He said: "They told me this is haram [Arabic for forbidden]."

Abbottabad is a military town of 400,000 residents, 60 miles north of capital Islamabad. Named after British army major James Abbott, the middle-class town is surrounded by hills and is a four-hour drive from Afghanistan.

As well as the Ilyasi mosque, one of the oldest in the region, Abbottabad is renowned for the Kakul Military Academy - which is just half a mile from bin Laden's compound.

A Pakistani police officer says the mansion was owned by an Afghan national called Arshad Khan. He added: "Arshad bought the house five years ago. But no one can identify his whereabouts." The officer, who asked not to be named, said: "There were several members of the bin Laden family inside the compound who have been taken into custody. One of them was his daughter Safia."

Video footage yesterday showed the inside of the secret compound.

A king-size bed showed where the al-Qaeda chief, 54, may have slept with his youngest wife, Amal al-Sadah.

A pool of blood was seen at the foot of the mattress and rooms are littered with paper and clothes.

A senior US government official said: "The compound sits on a large plot of land in an area that was relatively secluded in 2005 when the property was built on the outskirts of the town centre at the end of a narrow dirt road.

Afterwards, other homes were built near it. The security measures of the compound are extraordinary."

The official, who asked not to be named, added: "Access to the compound is restricted by two security gates and the residents of the compound burn their trash, unlike their neighbours, who put the trash out for collection.

"It's also noteworthy that the property is valued at $1million but has no telephone or internet service."

The CIA suspected for months that bin Laden and his family lived there with two al-Qaeda comrades - who acted as couriers - and their families.

It is not known how long the al-Qaeda supremo had been there.

The senior US government official revealed: "Analysts concluded that this compound was custom built to hide someone of significance. We learnt that more people were living at the compound than the two brothers and their families.

"A third family lived there - one that matched the size of the family that we believed bin Laden would have with him."

The revelation that bin Laden had been living in Pakistan so close to a major military academy could seriously affect the country's relationship with the West. Pakistan's army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, even visited the base four days before bin Laden was killed.

Labour Co-operative MP Mike Gapes, who sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee, said Pakistan had "a lot of questions" to answer.

And ex-Pakistani intelligence chief Hamid Gul said it was "amazing" that officials did not know bin Laden was in Abbottabad which is home to thousands of soldiers.

But Pakistan's High Commissioner in London, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, insisted last night that his country had no idea bin Laden had been there.

He said: "The Americans knew it and they carried out the operation.

"They killed Osama bin Laden and then the president of Pakistan was informed. And that's it."

CAPTION(S):

NEARBY.. Anglican church HISTORIC Ilyasi mosque in town SLEEPY Affluent town where terror chief was hiding out NEARBY.. Military academy SECRET HOME Police patrol outside the compound