Surrogate mother miscarried Osama’s twin grandchildren

LONDON - The British surrogate mother who was carrying Osama Bin Laden’s twin grandchildren has suffered a miscarriage after being attacked by two men in Syria.

Louise Pollard, 24, was ten weeks into pregnancy when she lost the twin conceived through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) using the sperm of Bin Laden’s son Omar and the eggs of his 54-year-old British wife, Zaina, previously known as Jane Felix-Browne.

Pollard was travelling in Syria with Omar’s wife. She was attacked as she walked alone from a cafe to her accommodation late at night. The assailants did not speak, but punched her to the ground, and then ran away, leaving her with a black eye and bruising on her arms and legs, the Daily Mail reported Monday.

Pollard, who hails from Bristol, managed to get back to her apartment, and later went to hospital where a scan showed she had lost the babies. “There was no heart beat,” said Pollard.

She said she has no idea of the motivation for the attack, but says she has been recognised both in Britain and in the Middle East as the “Western woman carrying Bin Laden children”.

Since her ordeal, which she did not report to the police, Pollard has decided not to attempt another surrogacy for the Bin Ladens, who have now separated amid claims that Omar has developed mental illness.

But she insists her decision has nothing to do with the couple’s connection to the world’s most wanted terrorist. She said: “I feel as a surrogate mother that I have to think about the child’s future.”

“When I agreed to the arrangement, I was trying to help what seemed like a stable happy couple who wanted to have a family. Just because they have the surname they do, does not mean they have done anything wrong,” she said.

“But now they’ve split up. Zaina is a grandmother in her fifties, on her own, with not much money, and Omar is apparently suffering from schizophrenia. They have more fertilised eggs to use, but because of Zaina’s age, I have been told they are probably not that viable anyway.”

The Bin Ladens were due to pay Pollard 10,000 pounds after the birth of any child she carried for them. However, she says that thanks to travel costs, child-care for her own four-year-old son Jaden and other expenses, she is actually 250 pounds out of pocket.

Pollard, who once worked as a pole dancer to fund an accountancy degree, says she will continue being a surrogate mother for other couples.

Sunday Omar Bin Laden said there was no chance of a reconciliation with his wife.

Asked for his reaction to Pollard’s miscarriage, he said he accepted it as “destiny”.