Investigators closes on Osama bin Laden's network of financiers after uncovering millions of pages at Abbottabad compound

LONDON: The net is closing in on al- Qaeda's network of financiers as investigators search millions of pages of material recovered from the Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan.

The investigators say they have learnt more about the terrorist group in 10 days than in the previous ten years.

Apart from uncovering potential plots and identifying operatives, investigators say they are piecing together information about the money trail.

Bin Laden is known to have had a network of wealthy backers in the Gulf region, some of whom may have been among the rare visitors to the compound, Sunday Times reported.

Apart from five home movies of bin Laden released last weekend, American officials say they discovered a stash of pornographic videos and photographs in a box in Bin Laden's bedroom.

Other possible targets for attack included Los Angeles, where dogs trained to detect suicide bombers went to work last week at the international airport.

Officials are gradually building up a bizarre picture of the life of the world's most wanted man during his five years at the compound.

The household, including three of his five wives, nine children and grandchildren and one or two adult sons, appears to have been largely self-sufficient, living on home-reared rabbits and chickens.

American investigators who have interviewed the three Bin Laden widows being held in Pakistani custody have concluded that they knew little.

"The women had no idea about his jihadi activities," said one intelligence source.

US investigators continue to hunt for evidence of any links between Bin Laden and Pakistani military or intelligence.