WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Central Intelligence Agency has begun showing lawmakers death photos of slain Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden that President Barack Obama said were too gruesome to be released to the public. Senator James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, said he was shown 15 photographs taken of bin Laden after he was killed in a US commando raid on May 2. In an interview with CNN, Inhofe agreed that the photos taken immediately in the compound in Pakistan immediately after bin Laden was killed were pretty gruesome. One of the shots went through an ear and out through the eye socket. Or it went in through the eye socket and out - then exploded, he said. That caused the brains to hang out of the eye socket, so that was pretty gruesome. Three photos were taken after bin Ladens body was removed from the compound and flown to a US aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, Inhofe said. They show the Al-Qaeda leaders body being washed and prepared for burial according to Muslim rites, and then lowered into the sea, he said.