US: Bin Laden compound was al-Qaida command center

WASHINGTON - The compound in Pakistan where US forces killed Osama bin Laden was an "active command and control center" where the al-Qaida leader retained strategic, operational and tactical direction of the group, a senior US intelligence official said on Saturday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said information recovered from the raid on bin Laden's compound represented the largest trove of intelligence ever obtained from a single terrorism suspect.