NEW YORK - The CIA hunted for Osama bin Laden in a remote section of northwestern Pakistan in recent years, the New York Daily News said Monday while quoting at least two sightings considered credible. One of the sightings was a grainy photo of Osama bin Laden inside a truck travelling in Chitral, a former senior counterterror official told the newspaper. The source, who, the tabloid said, had access to all reporting on Osma bin Laden, responded to a series of March 2009 articles that pinpointed where the CIAs tribal operations unit had hunted for Al Qaedas founder. The intelligence was obtained years ago and wasnt fresh enough to find and kill Osama bin Laden, who was first marked for death in 1995, the source added. Asked by ABC last December about the last hard intelligence on Osama bin Ladens location since he escaped Afghanistans Tora Bora mountains in December 2001, Defence Secretary Robert Gates admitted, I think its been years. CNN reported Monday that a senior NATO commander overseeing day-to-day operations in Afghanistan said Osama bin Laden has likely hidden in Chitral and in the Kurram area of Pakistan. Chitral has been an impenetrable sanctuary for brigands for centuries because of snow in chains of mountains that soar to 25,000 feet, which cut off the area to outsiders half the year. Osama bin Laden also is believed to have returned to Afghanistans Khost province since 2002 under the protection of his old mujahadeen friend Jalaluddin Haqqani, who leads part of the insurgency against US forces, American and Afghan sources have said. The NATO official also told CNN that Osama likely lives in a house, not a cave.