Pak PM-Geelani calls for funeral prayers for Osama

Srinagar, May 5 (PTI) Hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has asked people to hold funeral prayers tomorrow for Osama bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda who was shot dead in Pakistan on May 2 by a US Navy team.

Geelani has appealed to Imams and people to hold funeral prayers in absentia for bin Laden after Friday prayers tomorrow afternoon, a Hurriyat spokesman said in a statement.

Terming him a ''martyr'', Geelani said bin Laden was not just one person but "he represented a thinking which opposed foreign occupational forces".

"His heart bore the pain of the entire Muslim Ummah (community). He gave up his life of comfort to fight for their cause," the statement said.

The separatist leader said he wanted to participate in the funeral prayers but he has been placed under house arrest by the police since early this morning.

Geelani appealed to people to pray for the liberation of Kashmir, Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan from the occupation of forces.

Al Qaeda confirms bin Laden is dead, vows revenge

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Al Qaeda confirmed on Friday that Osama bin Laden is dead, dispelling doubts by some Muslims that the group's leader had really been killed by U.S. forces, and vowed to mount more attacks on the West.

The announcement by the Islamist network, which promised to publish a taped message from bin Laden soon, appeared intended to show its adherents around the globe that the group has survived as a functioning network.

In a statement online, it said the blood of bin Laden, shot dead by a U.S. commando team in a raid on Monday on his hideout in a Pakistani town, "is more precious to us and to every Muslim than to be wasted in vain."

"It will remain, with permission from Allah the Almighty, a curse that hunts the Americans and their collaborators and chases them inside and outside their country."

Al Qaeda urged Pakistanis to rise up against their government to "cleanse" the country of what it called the shame brought on it by bin Laden's shooting and of the "filth of the Americans who spread corruption in it."

"Before the sheikh passed from this world and before he could share with the Islamic nation in its joys over its revolutions in the face of the oppressors, he recorded a voice recording of congratulations and advice which we will publish soon, God willing," the militant group said.

The statement also warned Americans not to harm bin Laden's corpse and to hand it and those of others killed to their families, although U.S. officials say bin Laden's body has been buried at sea and no other bodies were taken from the compound.

Some in the Muslim world have been skeptical of bin Laden's death. One survey conducted in Pakistan this week by the British-based YouGov polling organization found that 66 percent of over 1,000 respondents did not think the person killed by U.S. Navy SEALs was bin Laden.

Anger and suspicion between Washington and Islamabad over the raid in Abbottabad, 30 miles (50 km) from the Pakistani capital, showed no sign of abating.

A U.S. drone killed 17 suspected militants in northwest Pakistan, despite warnings from the Pakistani military against the mounting of attacks within its borders. About 1,500 Islamists rallied in the southwestern city of Quetta to vow revenge for bin Laden's death and there were small protests elsewhere. Afghan Taliban and Islamist Indonesian youths made similar threats.

"FIVE YEARS" IN COMPOUND

One of bin Laden's wives, Amal Ahmed Abdulfattah, told Pakistani interrogators the al Qaeda leader had been living for five years in the compound where he was killed, a Pakistani security official told Reuters.

The revelation appeared sure to heighten U.S. suspicions that Pakistani authorities have been either grossly incompetent or playing a double game in the hunt for bin Laden and the two countries' supposed partnership against violent Islamists.

Pakistani security forces took 15 or 16 people into custody from the Abbottabad compound after U.S. forces removed bin Laden's body, said the security official. They included bin Laden's three wives and several children.

In Washington, a U.S. official said U.S. intelligence had established on-the-ground surveillance in Abbottabad in advance of the raid.

U.S. officials also said among materials found at bin Laden's hideout was some evidence indicating al Qaeda had at one point considered attacking the U.S. rail system on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks later this year.

The fact that bin Laden was found in a garrison town -- his compound was not far from a military academy -- has embarrassed Pakistan and the covert raid has angered its military.

Pressure is building in the U.S. Congress to suspend or at least review U.S. aid to Pakistan. Republican Representative Ted Poe has introduced a bill to ban more aid until Secretary of State Hillary Clinton can certify Pakistan did not know bin Laden's whereabouts, or if it did, told the U.S. government.

The Pakistan army, for its part, threatened on Thursday to halt counterterrorism cooperation with the United States if it conducted any more similar raids.

It was unclear if such attacks included drone strikes which the U.S. military regularly conducts against militants along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.

Pakistani security officials have charged that U.S. troops, after landing by helicopter, shot the unarmed al Qaeda leader in cold blood rather than in a firefight, as U.S. officials first suggested.

Amid differing accounts this week of how much hostile fire the SEALS encountered in the compound, one Pakistani security official said on Friday that U.S. forces should release video footage he said they "must have" of the operation.

U.N. human rights investigators called on the United States to disclose the full facts "to allow an assessment in terms of international human rights law standards."

"It will be particularly important to know if the planning of the mission allowed an effort to capture bin Laden," Christof Heyns and Martin Scheinin said in a joint statement.

FEW QUALMS AMONG AMERICANS

The Pakistani military also said on Thursday it had decided to reduce the U.S. military presence in the country.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Colonel David Lapan said the Defense Department had not received notice from Islamabad about any decision to change the size of the U.S. military contingent in Pakistan. He said there are a little under 300 U.S. military personnel in Pakistan, many of them trainers.

Few Americans appear to have qualms about how bin Laden was killed, and on Thursday people cheered President Barack Obama when he visited the site of New York's Twin Towers, leveled by al Qaeda on Sept. 11, 2001, killing nearly 3,000 people.

Seeking to repair ties, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Rome on Thursday that Washington was still anxious to maintain its alliance with Islamabad.

(Additional reporting by Erika Solomon in Dubai, Michael Georgy in Islamabad and David Alexander, Susan Cornwell and Mark Hosenball in Washington; writing by Andrew Roche and Patrick Worsnip; editing by Eric Beech)

Concerns raised over shooting of unarmed Osama, burial Reuters

BERLIN/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The killing of Osama bin Laden when he was unarmed has raised concerns the United States may have gone too far in acting as policeman, judge and executioner of the world's most wanted man.

But for several Muslim leaders, the more unsettling issue is whether the al Qaeda leader's burial at sea was contrary to Islamic practice.

The White House said on Tuesday that bin Laden had resisted the U.S. team which stormed his Pakistan hideout and that there had been concerns he would "oppose the capture operation".

Spokesman Jay Carney declined to specify what sort of resistance bin Laden offered but added: "We expected a great deal of resistance and were met with a great deal of resistance. There were many other people who were armed ... in the compound."

Former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt told German TV the operation could have incalculable consequences in the Arab world at a time of unrest there.

"It was quite clearly a violation of international law."

It was a view echoed by high-profile Australian human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson.

"It's not justice. It's a perversion of the term. Justice means taking someone to court, finding them guilty upon evidence and sentencing them," Robertson told Australian Broadcasting Corp television from London.

"This man has been subject to summary execution, and what is now appearing after a good deal of disinformation from the White House is it may well have been a cold-blooded assassination."

Robertson said bin Laden should have stood trial, just as World War Two Nazis were tried at Nuremburg or former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was put on trial at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague after his arrest in 2001.

"The last thing he wanted was to be put on trial, to be convicted and to end his life in a prison farm in upstate New York. What he wanted was exactly what he got - to be shot in mid-jihad and get a fast track to paradise and the Americans have given him that."

Gert-Jan Knoops, a Dutch-based international law specialist, said bin Laden should have been arrested and extradited to the United States.

"The Americans say they are at war with terrorism and can take out their opponents on the battlefield," Knoops said. "But in a strictly formal sense, this argument does not stand up."

A senior Muslim cleric in New Delhi, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, said U.S. troops could have easily captured bin Laden.

"America is promoting jungle rule everywhere, whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan or Libya. People have remained silent for long but now it has crossed all limits."

BURIAL AT SEA CONCERN

Son Had, spokesman for Jema'ah Ansharut Tauhid, the Islamic group founded by Indonesian firebrand Abu Bakar Bashir, said it was clear that bin Laden had become a martyr.

"In Islam, a man who died....in fighting for sharia will earn the highest title for mankind other than a prophet, that is

a martyr. Osama is a fighter for Islam, for sharia."

But for many Muslim leaders the greater concern was bin Laden's burial at sea, not land. His body was taken to an aircraft carrier where U.S. officials said it was buried at sea, according to Islamic rites.

I.A. Rehman, an official with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said it was more important than the issue of how bin Laden was killed.

"The fact that he was not armed is a smaller thing...There will be more focus on whether he was buried in an Islamic way. There has been reaction from Islamic clerics that he was not properly buried and this will be discussed for some time."

Saudi Sheikh Abdul Mohsen Al-Obaikan, an adviser to the Saudi Royal Court, was more direct.

"That is not the Islamic way. The Islamic way is to bury the person in land (if he has died on land) like all other people."

Amidhan, a member of Indonesia's Ulema Council (MUI), the highest Islamic authority in the world's biggest Muslim society, said he was more concerned about the burial that the killing.

"Burying someone in the ocean needs extraordinary situation. Is there one?," he told Reuters.

"If the U.S. can't explain that, then it appears just like dumping an animal and that means there is no respect for the man ... and what they did can incite more resentment among Osama's supporters."

Osama was planning attacks on US railways, big cities

Washington, May 6 (IANS) A treasure trove of materials taken from Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan indicates that Al Qaeda was mulling attacks on key US cities and railways timed to significant dates, according to US officials.

Material recovered from the raid on bin Laden's Abbottabad hideout indicated that in February 2010, Al Qaeda members discussed a plan to derail trains in the US on the 10th anniversary of the Sep 11, 2001 attacks by placing obstructions on tracks, multiple media reports said.

Other material gathered from the site also suggests that Al Qaeda was particularly interested in striking Washington, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, the CNN said.

US authorities have found that Al Qaeda appears especially interested in striking on significant dates like America's July 4 Independence Day, Christmas and the opening day of the United Nations.

As a precaution, the Department of Homeland Security Thursday sent out an alert advising federal, state and local agencies about the new evidence of a possible rail plot.

'As one option, Al Qaeda was looking into trying to tip a train by tampering with the rails so that the train would fall off the track at either a valley or a bridge,' said the DHS advisory.

After reviewing computer files and seized documents, American intelligence analysts have concluded that bin Laden played a direct role for years in plotting terror attacks from his Abbottabad hide-out, The New York Times said citing US officials.

The materials, along with others reviewed in the intelligence cache, have given intelligence officials a much richer picture of the Qaeda founder's leadership of the network as he tried to elude a global dragnet, it said.

'He wasn't just a figurehead,' the Times cited one American official as saying. 'He continued to plot and plan, to come up with ideas about targets, and to communicate those ideas to other senior Qaeda leaders.'

The fact that Bin Laden was found not in Pakistan's rugged tribal areas but on the outskirts of an affluent town less than an hour's drive from the capital, Islamabad, has prompted a rethinking of the widespread notion that he had little control over the rest of Al Qaeda, the daily said.

Other gleanings from the roughly 100 pieces of computer gear seized Sunday included possible leads on the whereabouts of other senior Al Qaeda leaders, the Washington Post reported.

While intelligence officials declined to comment on specific tips, a key congressional leader briefed on the findings suggested that the search for Al Qaeda's No. 2 leader was in a newly active phase, it said.

The task of identifying and exploiting intelligence tips has been assigned extraordinary urgency, since the raid likely alerted top Al Qaeda figures that their safe houses and plans may have been compromised, the Post said citing a US official.

Obama vs. Osama: what's in a name?

NEW DELHI: In the rush to cover the biggest “breaking news” story of the day, countless media outlets also made the biggest typo of the day, and blithely announced that “Obama bin Laden is dead.”

And there's no language bar on the confusion. According to video grabs posted online, an Indian TV channel ran graphics — in Hindi script — announcing that “Obama ke sir par goli lagi,” which translated, reads “Obama was shot in the head.”

Fox anchor faux pas

After U.S. President Barack Obama made the televised announcement that al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was dead, an anchor of American news channel Fox made the ultimate gaffe on air. In 16 seconds of infamy that has been seen across the world thanks to YouTube, he told viewers, “President Obama is in fact dead.”

Another Fox News affiliate channel carried a breaking news graphic with the same message: “Reports: Obama bin Laden dead.” Given that Fox is a conservative news outlet well known for its criticism of the American President, the blogosphere reverberated with conspiracy theories and accusations of bias.

However, it seemed to be a common mistake, with screenshots showing that ABC News and a CBS Radio journalist had also goofed up.

Perhaps highlighting that those who live in glass houses should not be too eager to throw stones, liberal commentator Keith Olbermann called out the Fox gaffe on his website — just one sentence after he made the same typo himself, writing that “Mr. Bush personally de-prioritised the hunt for Obama.”

In fact, it is an old error dating from Mr. Obama's emergence on the American political stage. Both senior Democratic leader Ted Kennedy and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney have flubbed his name on an occasion, and in a 2007 show on the whereabouts of the terrorist, CNN carried the caption, “Where's Obama?”

With Osama being buried at sea, perhaps Obama's name will be left alone in the media headlines of the future.

-Priscilla Jebaraj

Who was Osama bin Laden's enemy?

That Osama bin Laden was a man capable of bitter hatred and that he could act on his hatreds with meticulous calculation is not in doubt. There is, nevertheless, evidence that many of his sworn enemies, despite their expressed repugnance at his and his followers' most violent acts, may have concurred with him on some of the things he craved most, even to the point of doing what he wanted.

It is well enough known that Osama could be persuasive. Ziauddin Sardar, an authority on the history of the sciences in Islamic cultures and a writer always sensitive to the idea of adab, the etiquette of being human, writes in his collection Breaking the Monolith (imprintOne, 2008) about the time he heard Osama speaking in Pakistan and was captivated by the latter's eloquence and knowledge, particularly on the double standards in United States foreign policy. Yet Sardar recognises that when Osama detailed what he thought should be done he revealed himself to be a man of violence and an unthinking adherent of a narrow, rigid version of Islam, a version which Sardar says is filled with ‘obnoxious' tribal customs and practices.

The distinguished British journalist Robert Fisk, who met Osama in 1993 when the latter was building roads in Sudan and then in Afghanistan in 1996, makes similar inferences. He wrote in the Independent in March 2007 that Osama's post-9/11 videotapes had an increasing amount of historical content about West Asia, about, for example, the Balfour Declaration, the Sykes-Picot agreement, and the Ottoman Caliphate; in the 1996 meeting, the demagogue was also “raging” about what he called the corruption of the Saudi royal family and was “contemptuous” of the West – but showed no contrition or regret for anything he had done or had inspired others to do.

In that regard, the terrorist was less disingenuous than he might have been expected to be. In 1993 he was doing more than build roads. He wanted, as Greg Palast points out in his book Armed Madhouse (Dutton, 2006), to develop Sudan's oil industry, as a counter not to the U.S. or any other Western country but to Iran, whose clerics' increasing influence in Afghanistan was obstructing his own plans to join forces with Central Asian fundamentalists and take control of oil fields around the Caspian Sea.

He was as vituperative about Shia Islam and its adherents as he was about the United States, but he was also after oil; he hated Saddam Hussein for ruling a country with some of the world's largest oil reserves, and, Palast concludes, his aim was the creation of a new Caliphate, a “Petroleum Kingdom of God” which would cover the area from Sudan to Kazakhstan. His family own a range of successful businesses in oil and construction among other things.

If Osama's loathing for Iran was something he shared with his enemies in the United States, he found the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia, which dated from the first Gulf war in 1990-91, nothing less than an obscenity.

In 1996, he declared war against the American “infidels,” adding an injunction that they be driven from the territory. In April 2003, a few days before the then U.S. President George W. Bush made his notorious “mission accomplished” speech on the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, Washington stated that it would remove its troops from Saudi Arabia. As Palast says, it was Osama's mission that had been accomplished.

-Arvind Sivaramakrishnan

Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri is next Target

Ayman al-Zawahiri.

ISLAMABAD: Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian surgeon considered the real mastermind of the global terror franchise, is now set to succeed Osama bin Laden as the world's most wanted man.

Like his Saudi-born co-conspirator, Zawahiri has been hiding ever since the United States declared its war on terror after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Unlike his late comrade, who President Barack Obama said was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan, Zawahiri is presumed still at large with organisational skills, cunning and intelligence said to eclipse that of bin Laden.

Reportedly last seen in October 2001 in eastern Afghanistan, close to the Pakistan border, he has released multiple videos from his hiding, calling for war on the West.

While bin Laden was seen as al-Qaeda's inspiration, his deputy is believed to be the real brains that steered operations, including the September 11 attacks, and as a result arguably even more dangerous.

The former eye surgeon's position as bin Laden's main strategist and mentor earned the 59-year-old a $25 million bounty on his head.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's list of most wanted terrorists said he was also bin Laden's personal doctor. As bin Laden withdrew from the public eye after 2004, it was often up to Zawahiri to motivate the group's followers with a series of hectoring video appearances, jabbing his finger and staring from behind heavy-rimmed glasses. Zawahiri met bin Laden when thousands of Islamist fighters from around the world flooded into Afghanistan during the 1980s jihad against Soviet forces. — AFP

What now for al-Qaeda?

First break down the network into its constituent elements: the hardcore leadership, the various affiliated groups that have some kind of organisational link to al-Qaeda and the ideology, al-Qaeda-ism.

The hardcore leadership has always been defined as Osama and his Egyptian associate, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and a few score associates in Pakistan. Zawahiri is apparently still alive. However, the ageing former paediatrician has none of the charisma of Osama. He is good on ideology, strong on strategy and even organisation but can never be the focal point for active followers, whether aspirant jihadis or veteran militants, that Osama was.

There are younger leadership figures, some who have been promoted as al-Qaeda has tried to fight its creeping marginalisation in recent years. But people such as Abu Yayha al-Libi, who is in his mid-40s, can never replace “the sheikh”. The central leadership of al-Qaeda has been splintered in recent years, often pitting Saudi Arabian, Egyptian and Libyan militants against each other. It is now likely to definitively fracture.

What of the affiliate groups or the “network of networks”? Decentralising was always an integral part of the strategy of Osama. Al-Qaeda was conceived as an umbrella group, channelling and focusing the diverse energies of the various groups active across the Islamic world in the 1990s. This worked for a while but the main regional groups now — Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (largely the Yemen), Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (largely Algeria) and Al-Qaeda in Iraq are largely independent of the main leadership. Each is rooted in specific local factors and history. Their alliance with al-Qaeda was usually nominal in any case.

This reminds us how al-Qaeda was always only one of scores of radical groups that together constituted the dynamic, varied and evolving phenomenon of Sunni Muslim violent extremism. Though the death of Osama will fundamentally change the landscape of contemporary militancy it will thus not necessarily have a big immediate effect on affiliate groups beyond discouraging their leadership by showing how, even if it takes 10 years, fugitives do eventually get caught and killed.

The final question is perhaps the most important. What will the effects be on the ideology? Here the situation is less clear. Osama's greatest success was to make his particular interpretation of radical Islamism globally known. There were other strands of militant thinking and strategy around in the late 1990s but 20 years of “propaganda by deed” made Osama's the dominant one. A thriving jihadi subculture has emerged. Al-Qaeda has become, in many ways, a social movement. Osama's death means the removal of the figure at the centre of this construct. This is undoubtedly important.

Also, many of the myriad factors that have fed radical militancy in recent decades — some of which stretch back decades or even centuries in the Islamic world or in the Islamic world's relationship with the West — are still as potent as ever. We are living in a new era of polarisation, conspiracy theory and religious identity. The strategic impact of Osama's actions depended in part on the reaction of his enemies, particularly the United States. The consequences of his death do so too.

That said, in recent years the increasing marginalisation of al-Qaeda — culturally, socially and geographically — has been very clear. The Arab Spring demonstrated how Osama's message had been rejected by those hundreds of millions he once sought to radicalise and mobilise. Al-Qaeda had orchestrated no major successful attack for more than five years. The recruits were coming to the makeshift Pakistani camps but only in enough numbers to assure the core group's survival not its success, at least not in the short term.

The most likely scenario in the future is continuing low-level violence and threat shifting around the periphery of the Islamic world depending on local circumstances and the emergence of new leaders. “My life or death does not matter. The awakening has started,” Osama boasted in late 2001. It will be at least another decade before we know if he was right. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2011

Pakistan exudes sense of quiet resignation

ISLAMABAD: It was with a sense of quiet resignation that Pakistan on Monday absorbed Barack Obama's announcement that Osama bin Laden had been killed in Abbottabad, a district that is a two-hour drive away from the federal capital.

The usually “conservative” media did not refer to his death as shahaadat (martyrdom), but used the word halaak (killed). Many media-watchers found this to be refreshing. “While reporting deaths of religious militants, Pakistani media – particularly, the mainstream vernacular print and electronic media – usually uses shaheed (martyr) or jaan bahaq (laid down life) unless they have been killed by the military.”

As the news poured in, the blogosphere provided evidence of Pakistanis steeling themselves for more terror attacks as organisations linked to the al-Qaeda are expected to avenge the death. By afternoon there were reports of a blast in a mosque in Charsadda north-west of Abbottabad. At least four persons were killed.

While the Pakistan Government was slow to break its silence, when it did so, the first statement raised eyebrows as the Foreign Office maintained that bin Laden had been killed in a U.S. operation. How Pakistan could claim to have been out of the loop defied logic, considering that four helicopters were used in the operation. Add to this the location of bin Laden's fortified hideout, within sight of the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul.

The general perception was that Pakistan would have known about the operation but was not admitting that, to cushion the blowback effect. Also, some security analysts said the Foreign Office statement reflected no anger at the operation that took place on Pakistani soil. In turn, it actually seeks to portray the al-Qaeda as an enemy of Pakistan.

No street protests

There have been no reports of any street protests — despite some analysts describing the operation deep inside the country's boundaries as an attack on Pakistani sovereignty, much like the drone attacks.

After the initial silence, politicians from across the spectrum joined the debate. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif demanded a clear statement from the federal government on who had carried out the operation. “Was it a U.S. operation, or was it a joint operation?” he asked. His counterpart in Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa, Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, maintained that the provincial government had no information. “Our police went to the spot only on hearing the blasts,” he said.

‘Heavy price'

For his part, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Imran Khan said that, if indeed bin Laden had been killed, then the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force should leave Afghanistan as this was a war on the al-Qaeda. “Pakistan has paid a heavy price for supporting this war and there is now no point in the ISAF staying on in the region.”

Justice rendered for 9/11 victims, says Obama

On a day when the United States basked in the glory of its accomplishment in its decade-long war on terror, U.S. President Barack Obama sought to temper the triumphalism over the killing of Osama bin Laden by placing victims of the 9/11 attacks in the spotlight, and also by emphasising that America was not at war with Islam.

Shortly after he announced Osama's killing in a residential compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, large crowds of revellers gathered outside the White House here and near Ground Zero in New York City, waving the American flag and chanting “USA, USA!” and “Yes, we can!”

While many of those speaking to the media expressed joy, a sense of justice delivered or closure, hearing the news of Osama's death, Mr. Obama sought to temper the emotional outpourings, cautioning, “We must also reaffirm that the U.S. is not – and never will be – at war with Islam.”

He said that he had made it clear, just as Mr. Bush did shortly after 9/11, that “bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims.” Indeed, the al-Qaeda has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, Mr. Obama said.

Yet the President firmly underscored the significance of bin Laden's killing for the families of those killed on September 11, 2001. He said: “It was nearly ten years ago that a bright September day was darkened by the worst attack on the American people in our history. The images of 9/11 are seared into our national memory – hijacked planes cutting through a cloudless September sky; the Twin Towers collapsing to the ground; black smoke billowing up from the Pentagon; the wreckage of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the actions of heroic citizens saved even more heartbreak and destruction.”

Mr. Obama also said that while Americans understood the costs of war they would be relentless in defence of their citizens and “our friends and allies.”

“On nights like this one, we can say to those families who have lost loved ones to al-Qaeda's terror: Justice has been done,” he said.

There was unequivocal and bipartisan praise for the Obama administration's perseverance in tracking down and killing bin Laden. Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton — also associated with pursuing bin Laden for terror attacks on U.S. soil — hailed his killing as justice delivered.

In a statement Mr. Clinton said, “I congratulate the President, the National Security team and the members of our armed forces on bringing Osama bin Laden to justice.” Mr. Bush, who was in office during the 9/11 attacks, said: “This momentous achievement marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001.”

He added a strong message to those who would attack the U.S., saying: “The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a similar statement saying that the death of bin Laden sent a message to the Taliban in Afghanistan that “you cannot wait us out. You cannot defeat us. But you can make the choice to abandon the al-Qaeda” and participate in a peaceful political process. She added that some doubted bin Laden would ever be caught, but “this is America... We persevere, and we get the job done.”

John Boehner, U.S. House Speaker and Republican of Ohio, said: “This is...a victory in our continued fight against the al-Qaeda and radical extremism around the world. We continue to face a complex and evolving terrorist threat, and it is important that we remain vigilant in our efforts.”

Former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney had direct words of praise for Mr. Obama when he said: “I also want to congratulate President Obama and the members of his National Security team. At this moment when bin Laden has been brought to justice, we especially remember the sacrifice of the young Americans who've paid the ultimate price in the defence of the nation, as well as the nearly 3000 Americans who lost their lives on 9/11.”

While the economic recovery and job creation are likely to continue to be key issues for the presidential elections in November 2012, many observers noted that the killing of bin Laden marked a major achievement for the Obama administration's continued war on terror and would likely improve Mr. Obama's odds of re-election significantly.

Osama bin Laden was Killed

END OF A CHASE: Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a U.S. operation in Abbottabad in Pakistan on Sunday, is seen in this undated file picture speaking at an undisclosed location in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON: Osama bin Laden, leader of terror outfit al-Qaeda and alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks in New York City, was killed in Pakistan in a Special Forces operation by the United States, U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Sunday night.

In a statement issued shortly after 11.30 p.m., Mr. Obama confirmed that Osama, high on the list of U.S. authorities' most wanted men, had been killed after a “fire-fight” in Abbottabad, a military cantonment town not far from Islamabad. The President said U.S. forces subsequently “took custody of his body.”

Media reports quoted administration officials saying Osama had offered resistance to the assault team, presumed to comprise U.S. Navy Seals, and was shot in the head. The end came when U.S. forces in helicopters attacked a large walled compound where Osama and some of his family members were said to be hiding.

While U.S. officials said DNA evidence confirmed that Osama was killed, no official evidence of his identity was released yet. Senior administration officials, briefing the media, had said the body would be handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition, and reports confirmed that he was “buried at sea.”

Even as news of his death broke, large crowds gathered outside the White House, at Ground Zero — the site of the 9/11 attacks — and in Times Square, New York City. Comprising mostly college-aged youngsters, the masses waved the American flag, sang the U.S. national anthem and chanted “USA, USA”.

Touching upon the historic import of Osama's death after nearly a decade of the U.S.-led war on terror, Mr. Obama said in his address to the nation: “For over two decades, Bin Laden has been al-Qaeda's leader and symbol, and has continued to plot attacks against our country and our friends and allies.”

Mr. Obama said the death of Osama marked the “most significant achievement to date” in the U.S.' effort to defeat the al-Qaeda; however, he cautioned: “Yet his death does not mark the end of our effort. There is no doubt that the al-Qaeda will continue to pursue attacks against us. We must — and we will — remain vigilant at home and abroad.”

Echoing the popular mood of the jubilant masses on the streets, Mr. Obama said justice had been done. The former Presidents, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton – also associated with pursuing Osama for terror attacks on U.S. soil – also joined with Mr. Obama in hailing Osama killing as justice delivered.

Even as spontaneous celebrations erupted across the country, Mr. Obama sought to emphasise that his country would never be at war with Islam, and also that Pakistan's counter-terrorism cooperation had been important in the operation. “Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims.” Indeed, the al-Qaeda had slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, Mr. Obama said.

There was some ambiguity regarding Pakistan's role in the operation. While Pakistani officials were quoted in the media as saying that they did have prior knowledge of the assault in Abbottabad, U.S. officials appeared to deny this, with one senior administration official saying: “We had shared this information with no other country, and... a very, very small group of individuals within the U.S. government was aware of this.”

However, Mr. Obama said he had called Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday night, and Pakistani officials “agree that this is a good and historic day for both of our nations.”

U.S. President Barack Obama announces the killing of Osama, at the White House in Washington on Monday.

Regarding the covert operation, senior administration officials at the White House revealed numerous details regarding the intelligence gathering efforts that had set the stage for the assault.

Speaking to the media in a late-night conference call, they said that beginning in September 2010 the Central Intelligence Agency was said to have discussed with Mr. Obama “a set of assessments that led it to believe that in fact it was possible that Osama may be located at a compound in Pakistan.”

Following these discussions, officials said, it was determined in mid-February that there was a sound intelligence basis for pursuing the lead in an aggressive way and “developing courses of action to pursue Osama bin Laden at this location.”

With the President giving the final order to pursue the operation on the morning of April 29, the raid was sanctioned for Sunday, May 1, and the target, a large home with 18-foot walls and no telephone or internet connections, was identified based on intelligence reports compiled over four years.

Spending less than 40 minutes in the compound, the U.S. forces “did not encounter any local authorities while performing the raid,” officials said, and apart from Osama, three adult males were said to have been killed, in all likelihood two couriers and Osama's adult son. Osama did offer resistance to the assault, officials said, confirming that one woman was also killed “when she was used as a shield by a male combatant.”

Following the assault, a helicopter was lost due to mechanical failure and “it had to be destroyed by the crew and the assault force.” Officials said crew members boarded the remaining aircraft to exit the compound.

Support system

PTI reports:

U.S. counter-terrorism chief John Brennan told journalists at the White House on Monday that it was “inconceivable” that Osama had no support system inside Pakistan that allowed him to remain there for an extended period of time.

The U.S. administration was investigating how the al-Qaeda chief was able to hold on in the country for so long.

While refusing to speculate on what kind of support Osama might have had in Pakistan, Mr. Brennan did not rule out the possibility of the terrorist having official backing.

He said the fact that Osama was found so close to the capital “raises questions.”