Obama cancelled three operations to kill Osama until Hillary Clinton 'settled issue'

Washington, Aug. 21 (ANI): US President Barack Obama cancelled three operations to kill Osama bin Laden before finally going ahead with the mission at the insistence of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a new book has claimed.

The damning allegations are mentioned in a new book: 'Leading from Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him', written by journalist Rich Miniter.

Miniter has cited an unnamed source within the Joint Special Operations Command who revealed that three 'kill' missions were cancelled by Obama in January, February and March 2011.

According to the Daily Mail, Bin Laden was eventually killed by US Navy SEALs inside his compound in Abbotobad, Pakistan in May 2011.

According to the report, Obama has already come under fire from former SEALs for boasting of his role in the raid.

In his book, Miniter has portrayed Clinton as the main force behind killing bin Laden.

Miniter has claimed that it was top adviser Valerie Jarrett, a long-time Chicago ally, who urged Obama to cancel the first three operations to kill bin Laden, the report said.

Miniter said that Clinton's alliances with Leon Panetta, then CIA director and now Pentagon chief, and David Petraeus, then head of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan and now at the helm at the CIA, played critical roles in bringing bin Laden to justice.

Minister, in his book, said that Obama was 'studiously undecided' about whether to kill the mastermind of 9/11.

"He refused to weigh in or commit himself on even small matters related to a possible strike on bin Laden," the book said.

"Obama feared taking responsibility for a risky raid that might go tragically wrong," Miniter wrote in his book.

Miniter said that even the day before bin Laden's demise, Obama was seized by a 'fourth moment of indecision', the report said. (ANI)