Initial statements had said Laden was armed and he used his wife as a shield during the raid that killed him at his hideout in Pakistan.

Giving a recap of the events, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said on orders of US President Bareck Obama a small American team assaulted a secure compound in an affluent suburb of Islamabad to capture or kill Laden.

Bin Laden made "some threatening moves that were made that clearly represented a clear threat to our guys. And that's the reason they fired," CIA Director Leon Panetta said yesterday.

The authority here was to kill bin Laden," the CIA chief said. "And obviously, under the rules of engagement, if he had in fact thrown up his hands, surrendered and didn't appear to be representing any kind of threat, then they were to capture him. But they had full authority to kill him."