DUBAI: Pakistan became aware of the operation that killed Osama bin Laden 15 minutes after it had begun but did not know the target, Al-Arabiya television quoted Interior Minister Rehman Malik as saying.

“I was made aware of the operation 15 minutes after it had begun, ”according the pan-Arab satellite channel Monday quoted the minister as saying in an interview. He added that he was also unaware of the target.

The minister's remarks which were published in Arabic on the channel's website, said that he was first informed that “one of two drones involved in the operation had crashed.”

Malik later Monday told reporters outside parliament in the Pakistan capital Islamabad that he believed it was a “drone attack” because Pakistan did not have helicopters with night vision.

He also sought to clarify remarks published in the Arab media.

“I was misquoted. I said I came to know there was a helicopter crash within 15 minutes. I asked relevant authorities and directed the concerned police official to go to the spot and check since we don't have night vision helicopters, so may be it was a drone strike,” he said.

“I was informed by the concerned police official two and half hours later that the army had taken control after the helicopter crashed.”

Helicopter-borne US commandos carried out a raid lasting less than 40 minutes, killed bin Laden and took away his body from a mansion near a Pakistani military facility outside Islamabad on May 2.

However, one of the US helicopters crashed and was destroyed by US Navy SEALs before they left in other aircraft.

Malik in his interview with Al-Arabiya stressed there was “permanent cooperation in the security field” between Islamabad and Washington, despite US concerns about the reliability of their key ally in the “war on terror.”

US President Barack Obama has pressed Pakistan to probe how bin Laden managed to live for years under the noses of its military, saying he must have had some kind of support network.