Reports from Pakistan say security forces have begun to destroy the compound in the city of Abbottabad where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden lived out his final years before U.S. troops killed him last May.

Residents say the government sent in heavy equipment on Saturday to destroy the structures on the site and is keeping it under strict security. The government has not given a reason for the demolition.

A local journalist at the site has told VOA that members of the Pakistani military engineering department are knocking down the boundary walls that surrounded the three-story building where bin Laden lived. He said the local civil district administration is supervising the work.

The compound has been cordoned off since the May, 2011 raid by U.S. special forces that brought about bin Laden's death.

The U.S. raid was an embarrassment to the Pakistani government because it had not been advised of the raid ahead of time.

Also embarrassing was the fact that bin Laden had been living at the compound for years, only a short distance from a Pakistani military facility.