Documents seized from Bin Laden's compound revealed

Al Qaeda documents seized by US Navy Seals from Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound - where he was killed last year - have been released.

The 17 documents have been made public, including English translations, by the Combating Terrorism Center, an independent research institution at the US military academy in West Point, New York.

ITV News' Washington Correspondent Robert Moore reports:

CNN reports the documents seized from Bin Laden's Pakistan compound have been described by US officials as a "treasure trove" of material.

The documents were found on five computers, dozens of hard drives and more than 100 storage devices, by Navy Seals in May last year.

U.S. officials have described the cache as a treasure trove of material, the single largest collection of senior terrorist material ever obtained. It included digital, audio and video files, printed materials, recording devices and handwritten documents

Among the Osama bin Laden documents released today by the Combating Terrorism Center in New York, is a 22 page typed document containing names of al Qaeda members in Afghanistan, Africa and other various Asian countries.

A report released by the Combating Terrorism Center, alongside the documents, reads: "Bin Laden’s frustration with regional jihadi groups and his seeming inability to exercise control over their actions and public statements is the most compelling story to be told on the basis of the 17 declassified documents."

The Bin Laden files reveal he wanted to target planes carrying President Obama and/or General Petraeus. He explained the death of Obama would lead to the "utterly unprepared" Vice President Joe Biden assuming the presidency, which would cause the United States to enter into crisis mode.

He added that the "the killing of Petraeus would have a serious impact on the course of the war,” as Bin Laden considered him to be “the man of this (critical) phase."

To read the report and documents in full, click here.