Pakistan levels Osama bin Laden hideout

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani authorities have reduced the house where Osama bin Laden lived for years before he was killed by U.S. commandos to rubble, destroying a concrete symbol of the country's association with one of the world's most reviled men.

Workers completed the demolition job in the garrison town of Abbottabad in northwest Pakistan on Monday.

The al Qaeda leader moved into the three-story house in 2005. Acting on intelligence gathered by the CIA, a team of U.S. commandos flew in by helicopter from Afghanistan and killed bin Laden on May 2 before dumping his body at sea hours later.

The operation left Pakistan's army in the awkward position of explaining why it had not detected the U.S. raid, and how bin Laden was able to live in the town without its knowledge. U.S. officials have said they have found no evidence that senior Pakistani officials were in the know about bin Laden's whereabouts.

Mechanized backhoes and construction workers began pulling down the house on Saturday night, working under floodlights.

An Associated Press photographer said on Monday the job was completed, save for a section of its boundary walls.

The house stood less than half a mile from one of the Pakistan army's top training academies.

Authorities never allowed journalists inside the building, and starting from a few days after the raid stopped them from even getting close to it.

Officials did not explain why the house was destroyed. Some residents of Abbottabad thought it should be a tourist attraction, although given the sensitivities surrounding the property it was hard to see the government developing it as one.

CBS News' Farhan Bokhari reports a senior Pakistani official told CBS News last month there were concerns that bin Laden's former home could attract widespread interest from domestic and foreign media around the first anniversary of his killing.

"The first anniversary is probably going to revive criticism of Pakistan's failure in detecting bin Laden," the government minister told CBS News on condition of anonymity. "We want to close this sorry chapter and move on."

Property documents show the land was owned by a man who later served as a courier for bin Laden. He is believed to have been killed during the raid.

Last year, several foreigners were briefly detained for trying to see it, including the Danish ambassador and his wife. U.S. commandos took computers, books and other intelligence materials from the building after killing bin Laden, and American officials were allowed to visit it in the weeks that followed.