Osama was neither 'weak nor frail': wife

Contrary to a widely held belief that Osama bin Laden was on dialysis, his youngest wife has said that the al-Qaeda chief was healthy and had recovered from two kidney operations, in part by using homemade remedies, including watermelon.

Contrary to a widely held belief that Osama bin Laden was on dialysis, his youngest wife has said that the al-Qaeda chief was healthy and had recovered from two kidney operations, in part by using homemade remedies, including watermelon.

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"He was neither weak nor frail," bin Laden's youngest wife Amal Ahmed Abdulfattah told Pakistani investigators.

The 29-year-old Yemeni told them that bin Laden had recovered from two kidney operations a decade or more ago in southern Afghanistan, in part by using homemade remedies, including watermelon, the New York Times reported.

She was apparently the one shot by US special forces commandos in the leg as she rushed towards them in an effort to protect her husband.

There were nine children in the household, but it remained unclear how many belonged to bin Laden and his son and how many to the courier and his brother.

Pakistani investigators, who reached after the American forces left bin Laden's Abbottabad house, found remedies for children's ear infections, colds and coughs.