Iran says CIA spreading 'fake news' about alleged Bin Laden links

Iran has accused the CIA of spreading "fake news" with newly declassified files seized in the 2011 raid in Pakistan in which al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed.

The CIA on Wednesday released 470,000 additional files found in May 2011 when US Navy SEALs burst into Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad and shot him dead.

One of the files allegedly provides a "new insight into the often-adversarial relationship between al-Qaeda and Iran — the Sunni Muslim terror group and the Shiite republic," the Associated Press reported. 

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif bluntly dismissed the allegations.

"A record low for the reach of petrodollars: CIA & FDD fake news w/selective AlQaeda docs re: Iran can't whitewash role of US allies in 9/11," he wrote on Twitter late on Thursday.

The release of the files comes as US President Donald Trump's administration seeks to ramp up pressure on Iran, refusing to certify a landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

This has caused some to question the timing and authenticity of the files, which come while Washington is attempts to close a divide between it and its European allies over the Iran nuclear deal.

Iran denies any link to al-Qaeda, however has been a major backer of Shia groups and militias in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Syria.

The Fars news agency, which is close to Iranian conservatives, said yesterday that the selective publication of documents by the CIA related to Al-Qaeda was part of efforts "to put pressure on Iran".