The operation that killed the al Qaeda leader.

Osama bin Laden was fixated on attacking U.S. targets and pressured al Qaeda groups to heal local rivalries and focus on that cause, according to documents the United States says were seized in his hideout in Pakistan and released on Wednesday.

The documents published by U.S. intelligence also contained details of purported negotiations between al Qaeda, its allies in the Pakistani Taliban and representatives of Pakistani intelligence, and what seemed to be an al Qaeda job application.

A July 2010 letter showed that bin Laden pressed al Qaeda in Yemen, one of the group's more active affiliates, to make peace with the government and focus on America.

Bin Laden's view was that Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) ought to sign a truce with Yemeni authorities or arrange an accommodation in which Yemeni authorities would leave the group alone "in exchange for focusing on America."

"The purpose is to focus on striking inside America and its interest abroad, especially oil producing countries, to agitate public opinion and to force US to withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq," according to a summary of the letter by a bin Laden associate identified as "Atiyyah."

It said the associate recommended "extra security measures" for Anwar al Awlaki, a U.S.-born radical preacher who became one of AQAP's principal strategists and spokesman, and also that Awlaki should be required to "change his way of life."

Awlaki had served as an imam at a mosque in a Virginia suburb of Washington, which was attended by two militants who participated in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He fled to Yemen after the attacks and was killed in 2011 by a CIA drone strike.