Updated 11:55 p.m. ET: The widows and children of slain al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden were deported from Pakistan early Friday, an Interior Ministry spokesman told NBC News.
Accompanied by a police escort, a mini-bus believed to be carrying them left the house where they had been detained and sped off toward the airport just after midnight, NBC's Amna Nawaz reported from Pakistan.
The government spokesman confirmed to NBC News producer Fakhar Rehman that 14 members of the family had been deported on court orders "to the country of their choice, Saudi Arabia." According to Al-Jazeera TV, the family members arrived in Saudi Arabia, apparently without incident.
A court had charged bin Laden's three widows and two daughters in early April with illegally staying in the country and sentenced them to 45 days in jail.
Abbottabad - One year after Osama bin Laden
They spent 14 days in prison – having been in detention since early March – before deportation to their home countries, including Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
Bin Laden widows sentenced to jail, deportation from Pakistan
NBC News learned that a Saudi plane had been waiting to transport the family members from Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International Airport.
Earlier, The New York Times said court documents named two of the wives as Kharia Hussain Sabir and Siham Sharif, both citizens of Saudi Arabia. The third and the youngest is Amal Ahmad Abdul Fateh, 30, who is from Yemen. She was wounded in the American raid in which bin Laden was killed, it said.
The family was detained by Pakistani authorities following the May 2, 2011 American raid on the compound in Abbottabad that left bin Laden dead.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have issued a bulletin addressing the potential for terrorist attacks to mark the upcoming anniversary of bin Laden's death, according to a report by CBS New York on Thursday.
The bulletin warned of "renewed efforts to target western aviation" and the threat from "lone wolf" terrorists, but said there wasn’t any credible specific threats, the report said.
Meanwhile, an Afghan soldier fatally shot an American service member and a local interpreter in southern Afghanistan, officials said Thursday, the latest in a string of attacks against U.S. and other foreign forces by their Afghan partners.
In the east, three U.S. service members were killed in a bomb attack.
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