Bin Laden's wife spent 6 years in Pakistani hideout

  View larger image    CTV.ca News Staff

A Pakistani man walks past graffiti, 'Osama Bin Town' which people woke up to early this morning, Friday, May 6, 2011, in Abbottabad, Pakistan, over a wall near the house, where bin Laden was caught and killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan. (AP / Anjum Naveed)

View larger image A Pakistani woman photographs her daughter at a gate of the compound where al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was caught and killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan Thursday, May 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Aqeel Ahmed)   View larger image Local residents and media persons are seen outside the house of where Osama bin Laden was caught and killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan Thursday, May 5, 2011. (AP / Aqeel Ahmed)

A Pakistani intelligence official says one of the three wives who was living with Osama bin Laden had not left the secret compound for six years.

The woman, identified as 29-year-old Yemeni-born Amal Ahmed Abdullfattah, is being interrogated by Pakistani police, after she was taken into custody following the U.S. raid that left bin Laden dead.

According to the intelligence official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Friday, Abdullfattah did not leave the upper floors of the walled compound since 2006.

It is not clear whether she was there under her own volition, or because she was forbidden to leave.

Nor did the official say whether Abdullfattah indicated her late husband had been living there as long as she had.

"We are still getting information from them," he told the AP.

Another official told AP the wife was shot in the leg during the hideout raid, but did not see her husband get killed. He did say one of bin Laden's eldest duaghters reported seeing her father shot to death.

The latest revelations follow word from Pakistani officials late Thursday that bin Laden and his associates had not mounted any "significant resistance" when American Navy SEALS entered the compound in the town of Abbottabad, in part because the special forces used stun bombs to disorient them.

They also said a search of the compound had discovered an AK-47 and a pistol that belonged to those in the compound.

"That was the level of resistance" they put up, the anonymous official said, explaining that the rifle had fired just one bullet.

While that approximates the most recent description of events by American officials, it wildly contradicts their initial account of an intense and prolonged firefight between the U.S. forces and armed resisters.

U.S. officials say, beside bin Laden, a total of four men were killed that night, only one of whom was armed and fired any shots.

When they left the compound, the U.S. forces took bin Laden's corpse with them, but left everyone else behind. Pakistani authorities have since taken all survivors into custody, including eight or nine children.

It is hoped they will shine some light on how bin Laden managed to evade capture living in a military garrison town less than three hours drive from the Pakistani capital Islamabad.

A Pakistani official said CIA officers are not being been given access to the women in custody, however.

With files from The Associated Press