Iran's intelligence minister said Tehran has "genuine intelligence showing that the terrorist leader died of disease long before the alleged raid" by the United States, the Iranian semiofficial FARS news agency reported.

“We have accurate information that bin Laden died of illness some time ago,” Heidar Moslehi said on the sidelines of a Cabinet meeting.

“If the U.S. military and intelligence apparatus have really arrested or killed bin Laden, why don't they show him (his dead body)? Why have they thrown his corpse into the sea?” Moslehi said.

By releasing such “false news,” he remarked, the White House is trying to overshadow “regional awakening.”

Moslehi is quoted as saying U.S. officials resort to such PR campaigns to divert attention from domestic problems as well as their “fragile” economic situation.