Islamabad, May 7 (IANS): Osama bin Laden, who was shot dead by US forces May 2, was hale and hearty and was "not on dialysis", the Al Qaeda leader's wife has told investigators.

Osama's youngest wife, Amal al-Sadah, said Osama was hale and hearty and had recovered from his kidney ailment.

"He was not on dialysis," Dawn quoted an official as saying. It was widely believed that Osama was suffering from a kidney ailment and needed constant dialysis.

Amal, who hails from Yemen and was just 17 when she wed Osama, has said that the 9/11 mastermind had undergone two kidney surgeries in Afghanistan's south-western Kandahar province during the Taliban regime.

He had recovered and was using homemade medications including water melons.

"He was neither weak nor frail," an official quoted Amal as saying.

"He believed in his own medication," she said.

Amal sustained a bullet injury in her left leg when US commandos stormed Osama's hideout in Abbottabad city May 2. Osama was killed in the daring raid carried out by US Navy SEALs and his body was later buried at sea.