Two Years Later, Children Play on the Ruins of Bin Laden's Abbottabad Compound

By National Journal staff

Updated: May 1, 2013 | 12:17 p.m.
May 1, 2013 | 11:04 a.m.

One year after SEAL Team 6 raided it, Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, has been razed. We take a look at the remains of bin Laden's compound and the city that sheltered him. The same spot that once held the most wanted man of the last decade, now gets trampled on by children, playing with the debris as though it were any other open lot. What a difference two years can make.

In this picture taken on Feb. 15, 2013, Pakistani children play on the lot where once Osama bin Laden's compound existed, which was demolished by authorities in Abbottabad, Pakistan. (AP Photo/Aqeel Ahmed)

A Pakistan man uses his mobile phone to photograph his daughter Hera, 3, at the demolished compound of Osama bin Laden, in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, May 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this April 29, 2012, photo, a Pakistani boy tries to break a concrete block as he and other children look for iron from the demolished compound of Osama bin Laden, in Abbottabad. One year since U.S. commandos flew into this army town and killed bin Laden, Pakistan has tried to close one of the most notorious chapters in its history. The compound that housed him for six years was razed to the ground, and the wives and children who shared the hideaway were flown to Saudi Arabia last week. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

A Pakistani woman and a girl walk through a path in a field next to the demolished house where Osama bin Laden was caught and killed in Abbottabad. A year after the U.S. raid, al-Qaida is hobbled and hunted, too busy surviving for the moment to carry out another Sept. 11-style attack on U.S. soil. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In an April 29, 2012, photo, Pakistani girls (center) walk at the demolished compound of Osama bin Laden. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this April 30 photo, Pakistani boys attend a madrassa, or Islamic school, set up in a mosque near the demolished compound of Osama bin Laden. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

A Pakistani man looks at a board with advertisements of a local movie, outside Taj Mahal cinema in Abbottabad. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

Pakistani boys on April 30 read verses of the Koran during their daily madrassa, or Islamic school, set up in a mosque near the demolished bin Laden compound. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

A Pakistani girl holds an umbrella as shelter from the rain while she and her father herd their sheep near the site of the demolished compound of Osama bin Laden on April 29. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this April 29 photo, barber Mohammed Arif, 35, lights his shop with a lamp during a power outage while shaving a customer in Abbottabad. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

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