U.S.-led operation killed Osama bin Laden, Obama says

Mr. Obama said the United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam: "Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader. He was a mass murderer of Muslims. His demise should be welcome by all who believe in peace and human dignity."

Mr. bin Laden's death comes almost a decade after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

A crowd of hundreds gathered outside the White House to celebrate, chanting, “USA, USA.” Former U.S. president George W. Bush called the killing a "momentous achievement."

Officials have long believed Mr. bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world, was hiding a mountainous region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Mr. bin Laden was killed at a compound inside Pakistan. Having the body may help convince any doubters that he is really dead.

Mr. Obama reaffirmed the United States' partnership with Pakistan, where relations have been strained over the course of the war on terror.

"Tonight, I called President (Asif Ali) Zardari, and my team has also spoken with their Pakistani counterparts," he said. "They agree this is a good and historic day for both of our nations."

"The American people did not choose this fight. It came to our shores. … Yet as a country we will never tolerate our security being theatened."

The impact of bin Laden’s death could ripple across the Afghanistan/Pakistan region, where his al-Qaeda network still maintains training camps that produce some of the suicide bombers and fighters who continue to attack western forces in Afghanistan.

Only last week, the NATO-led forces here said they killed a senior al-Qaeda leader in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar, which borders Pakistan. Officials said Abu Hafs al-Najdi, also known as Abdul Ghani, directed killings against tribal leaders and American troops.

Bin Laden operated training camps in Afghanistan and held sway over Taliban leaders during their brief oppressive rule here. His death may not diminish the Taliban insurgency, which portrays itself as an Afghan nationalist jihad against foreign invaders, and could inspire a new spasm of violence in reaction to what they will likely call the martyrdom of a Muslim idol.

The Saudi-born al-Qaeda leader became both the face of global terrorism and a symbol of the futile efforts to seek it out and fight it.

While his death is a victory for the anti-terror crusade by the U.S. and its allies, it's unlikely his demise will end the now-fractured network of terror cells that reaches across the world.

Counter-terror experts have noted al-Qaeda has grown into a more fragmented movement, its violent ideas having been franchised over to local allies who can operate without a central, larger-than-life figurehead leader.

“Al-Qaeda is an organization that evolved into an ideology, with Osama bin Laden's message receiving widespread attention in the Muslim world,” said Peter Bergen, one of the rare Western journalists who has met Mr. bin Laden in person.

“Clearly, the ideology will survive Osama bin Laden's death.”

Al-Qaeda has farmed out attacks to regional players in East Africa, Asia, the Caucasus and the Middle East, local radical partners it inspired and funded over the years, said Rohan Gunaratna, author of Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror.

“It will be a messy blow to the main al-Qaeda structure but the threat of terrorism will continue.”

At the same time, there are other examples of terrorist groups losing momentum after the capture of their charismatic leader.

After Turkey seized Abdullah Ocalan of the Kurdistan Workers Party, an initial wave of retaliatory attacks eventually petered and his supporters ended their armed campaign. In Peru, the arrest of Abimael Guzman Reymoso of the Shining Path decimated the violent Maoist movement.

Mr. bin Laden reached out to various associated groups, such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines, Jemaah Islamiah, elsewhere in southeast Asia, the Salafi Group in Algeria and other insurgents in Indonesia and Yemen. These groups provided not only a striking capacity but also training facilities, filling in for the loss of al-Qaeda's camps in Afghanistan.

“These groups play an equally important role. We are seeing terrorist capability in the regional, local Islamic radical groups,” Mr. Gunaratna said.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda has been severely crippled, losing its sanctuary in Afghanistan. Top operational planners have been captured -- such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- or killed, such as Muhammad Atef. More than 3,000 alleged members or supporters have been arrested, many of whom are now languishing in indefinite detention at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The U.S. and its allies have seized massive caches of weapons, handbooks and, more importantly, computers, videotapes and other electronics such as satellite and cellular phones that can be examined to retrace their former owners' activities and whereabouts.

Financial regulators have frozen tens of millions of dollars in assets from individuals and groups alleged to be raising funds for terrorism.

But al-Qaeda's brand of terror hasn't been put out of business. It has been accused of having a hand in everything from deadly 2002 bombings in Bali that left hundreds dead to the recent uprisings in Libya and Yemen to last week's bombing in Marrakesh, which killed 15 people in the usually peaceful country's deadliest attack since 2003.


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