This video frame grab obtained from ABC News showing the interior of the mansion where Osama Bin Laden was killed on Sunday. — Reuters picture
WASHINGTON: Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in a firefight with American forces in Pakistan on Sunday, President Barack Obama announced, ending a nearly 10-year worldwide hunt for the mastermind of the Sept 11 terror attacks. "Justice has been done," Obama said in a hastily called, late-night White House speech revealing the death of the elusive head of the militant group behind a series of bloody attacks in cities across the world.
His death, confirmed by officials in Pakistan, was a huge symbolic blow to al-Qaeda, which has been beaten back but is still a threat in many countries.
It prompted jubilant flag-waving celebrations here and in New York. It was the biggest national security victory for Obama since he took office in early 2009 and could give him a political boost as he seeks re-election in 2012. Obama may now find it easier to wind down the nearly decade-old war in Afghanistan, begun after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000.
But the operation could complicate relations with Pakistan, already frayed over United States drone strikes in the west of the country and the jailing of a CIA contractor accused of killing two Pakistani men. Obama said US forces led a targeted operation that killed Osama in a compound in Abbotabad, north of Islamabad. No Americans were killed in the operation and they took care to avoid civilian casualties, he said.
A senior administration official said it was believed that three adults, besides Osama, were killed, including an adult son of Osama. Osama's death triggered a travel alert for Americans worldwide, the US State Department said, warning of the potential for anti-American violence. Thousands of people gathered outside the White House, waving American flags, cheering and chanting "USA, USA, USA".
Similar celebrations erupted in New York's Ground Zero, site of the World Trade Center twin towers felled by hijacked airplanes. Many Americans had given up hope of ever finding Osama after he vanished in the mountains of Afghanistan in late 2001.
Intelligence that originated last August provided the clues that eventually led to Osama's trail, the president said. A US official said Obama gave the final order to pursue the operation last Friday morning. "The US has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda and a terrorist who is responsible for the murder of thousands of men, women and children," Obama said.
Former president George W. Bush, who vowed to bring Osama to justice "dead or alive" but never did, called the operation a "momentous achievement" after Obama called him with the news. Martin Indyk, a former US assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs, described Osama's death as "a body blow" to al-Qaeda at a time when its ideology was already being undercut by the popular revolutions in the Arab world.
Other experts were more cautious. "It changes little in terms of on-the-ground realities -- by the time of his death, Osama was not delivering operational or tactical orders to the numerous al-Qaeda affiliates across the world," said Rick Nelson of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Statements of appreciation poured in from both sides of Washington's often divided political divide. Republican Senator John McCain declared, "I am overjoyed that we finally got the world's top terrorist". Said former president Bill Clinton: "I congratulate the president, the national security team and the members of our armed forces on bringing Osama bin Laden to justice after more than a decade of murderous al-Qaeda attacks."
Having the body may help convince any doubters that Osama is really dead. However, a US official said Osama had been buried at sea.
Finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world's most wanted terrorist would have been difficult, the official said. So the US decided to bury him at sea.
"We wanted to avoid a situation where it would become a shrine," another official said. -- Agencies
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