All Pakistan Blog

"The wreckage of the helicopter destroyed in the bin Laden operation was returned over the weekend and is now back in the United States," Colonel Dave Lapan said.

The helicopter was damaged in a hard landing at bin Laden's compound and US special forces deliberately blew it up after gunning down the Al-Qaeda leader in the May 1-2 raid, officials have said.

Photographs of the tail of the wrecked helicopter fueled speculation among experts and aviation enthusiasts that the aircraft was a secret model with design features to reduce noise or foil radar detection -- most likely a modified Blackhawk.

Pakistan had said earlier this month that it would not share the damaged helicopter with China, which has been accused of buying up wreckage of US military aircraft to get an insight into American defense technology.

Tensions between the United States and its ally Pakistan have run high since bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the world's most wanted man, was found living in Abbottabad, a garrison town near Islamabad.

Al-Watan newspaper, quoting an unnamed "regional source," said the top two Al-Qaeda men had differences and that a courier who led US forces to bin Laden was working for Zawahiri.

The courier was a Pakistan national and not a Kuwaiti as the US suspected, Al-Watan said. The man knew he was being followed by the US military but disguised the fact.

"The Egyptian faction of Al-Qaeda is defacto running the organisation now and since he was taken ill in 2004 they have been trying to take full control," 

according to the paper.

It said Zawahiri's faction had persuaded bin Laden to leave tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border and take shelter instead in Abbottabad near Islamabad where he was finally killed by US commandos on Monday.

With the return of an Egyptian figure in Al-Qaeda, Saif al-Adel, last autumn from Iran, the Egyptian faction had hatched a plan to dispose of Saudi-born bin Laden, according to Al-Watan. Geo News