Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press

White House officials on Tuesday sought to correct the official account of the raid in Pakistan that ended in the killing of Osama bin Laden, saying that the Qaeda leader was not armed and that his wife was not killed. But they added that Bin Laden resisted when confronted during the raid.

The new Defense Department narrative released by the White House, and read at a White House news briefing on Tuesday, said that one of Bin Laden’s wives was shot in the leg as she charged members of the commando team on the third floor of the compound.

“In the room with Bin Laden, a woman – Bin Laden’s wife – rushed the U.S. assaulter and was shot in the leg but not killed,” the brief statement said. “Bin Laden was then shot and killed. He was not armed.”

The narrative was released as tensions escalated between the U.S. and Pakistan, with Pakistani officials accusing the U.S. of “an unauthorized unilateral action” in its territory that would not be tolerated again, and a U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, telling Pakistani officials that patience was wearing thin with them in Congress.

In releasing the new narrative of the raid, Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, tried to correct statements by administration officials who had suggested that Bin Laden was armed during the attack.

Under questioning, Mr. Carney said that the White House stood by its claim on Monday that Bin Laden had resisted capture, but said that “resistance does not require a firearm.” Mr. Carney said that the new narrative was the result of “fresh” information.

“I want to make clear that this is, again, information that is fresh and, you know, we will continue to gather and provide to you details as we get them and we’re able to release them,” Mr. Carney said. “The resistance was throughout, as I said.”

On Monday, John O. Brennan, the top counterterrorism adviser to President Obama, said he believed that Bin Laden’s wife had been killed while trying to shield the terror leader during the 40-minute raid.

The conflicting accounts reveal the pressures on a White House intent on telling a dramatic story about a successful operation as it sought to manage a 24-hour news media ravenous for immediate and vivid details. In fact, even as Mr. Brennan was giving his account on Monday, other officials began clarifying parts of the story for reporters.

Several experts on the rules of engagement in combat said that in a raid on a target as dangerous as Bin Laden, the assault team would be justified to open fire at the slightest commotion when they burst into a room.

“If he were surrendering, or knocked out and unconscious on the ground, that would raise serious questions,” said John B. Bellinger III, legal counsel at the National Security Council and State Department in the Bush administration.

The narrative released Tuesday by Mr. Carney suggested that the woman who died in the raid was part of another family living at the compound. The narrative says that woman was shot and killed on the first floor, not the third floor, where Bin Laden was found and killed.

“On the first floor of Bin Laden’s building, two Al Qaeda couriers were killed along with a woman who was killed in cross-fire,” Mr. Carney said. “Bin Laden and his family were found on the second and third floor of the building. There was concern that Bin Laden would oppose the capture operation, and indeed he resisted.”

Neither the Defense Department narrative nor Mr. Carney made any mention of the woman who was killed having been used as a “human shield” during the firefight, as previously described.

Administration officials also changed their description of how much information Mr. Obama and other senior officials in the White House had in Washington as the operation was unfolding in Pakistan.

On Monday, Mr. Brennan repeatedly said that he and others in the Situation Room were monitoring the situation “in real time.” Mr. Brennan would not say on Monday whether the officials could see or hear the operation.

“We were able to monitor the situation in real time and were able to have regular updates and to ensure that we had real-time visibility into the progress of the operation,” Mr. Brennan told reporters on Monday.

But on Tuesday, Leon E. Panetta, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said in an interview on the “Newshour” on PBS that “once those teams went into the compound, I can tell you there was a time period of almost 20 to 25 minutes where we really didn’t know just exactly what was going on, and there were some very tense moments as we were waiting for information.”

“But finally,” Mr. Panetta said, “Admiral McRaven came back and said that he had picked up the word ‘Geronimo,’ which was the code word that represented that they got Bin Laden.”