Pakistanis say U.S. shot bin Laden in "cold blood"

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Americans are questioning how the al Qaeda leader could live for years in some comfort in a garrison town near the Pakistani capital. Some call for cutting billions of dollars in U.S. aid.

As Clinton was meeting European and Arab allies in Rome, Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Kayani, issued a statement saying any new U.S. raids would mean a possible end to cooperation with the Pentagon on security and intelligence.

"Any similar action violating the sovereignty of Pakistan will warrant a review on the level of military/intelligence cooperation with the United States," the army said.

And in a further sign of fractious relations between the allies, senior Pakistani security officials told Reuters that U.S. accounts had been misleading in describing a long gun battle at the compound in Abbottabad where bin Laden and four others were killed by an elite squad of U.S. Navy SEALs.

"It was cold-blooded," said one Pakistani official when asked if there was any exchange of fire. After an initial account of a 40-minute firefight, U.S. officials have now been quoted saying only one person fired at the raiding party, and that only briefly as the helicopter-borne assault team arrived.

A U.S. acknowledgment that bin Laden was unarmed when shot in the head -- as well as the disposal of his body at sea, a practice rare in Islam -- have drawn criticism from the Arab world and Europe, where some have warned of a backlash against the West, even among Muslims who reject Qaeda's violence.

BIN LADEN UNARMED

The White House has blamed the "fog of war" for its changing stories. Citing U.S. officials, NBC television said four of the five people killed, including bin Laden himself, were unarmed.

The New York Times quoted officials in the administration of President Barack Obama saying bin Laden's courier fired the only shots against the Americans, in the early stages of the raid, from a guesthouse in the sprawling, high-walled compound.