Osama bin Laden dead, killed by US in Pak:shot in the head
Washington: Osama bin Laden, the mastermind
of the most devastating attack on American soil in modern times and the
most hunted man in the world, was killed in a firefight with United
States forces in Pakistan on Sunday, President Obama announced.
In
a dramatic late-night appearance in the East Room of the White House,
Mr. Obama declared that "justice has been done" as he disclosed that
American military and C.I.A. operatives had finally cornered the Al
Qaeda leader who had eluded them for nearly a decade and shot him to
death at a compound in Pakistan.
"For over two decades, Bin Laden
has been Al Qaeda's leader and symbol," the president said in a
statement carried on television around the world. "The death of bin
Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation's
effort to defeat Al Qaeda. But his death does not mark the end of our
effort." He added: "We must and we will remain vigilant at home and
abroad."
The death of Mr. Bin Laden is a defining moment in the
American-led war on terrorism. What remains to be seen is whether the
death of the leader of Al Qaeda galvanizes his followers by turning him
into a martyr, or whether it serves as a turning of the page in the war
in Afghanistan and gives further impetus to the Obama administration to
bring American troops home.
The death of Mr. bin Laden came nearly 10 years after Al Qaeda
terrorists hijacked four American passenger jets and crashed them into
the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon outside Washington and
the countryside of Pennsylvania. Late Sunday night, as the president was
speaking, cheering crowds gathered outside the gates of the White House
shortly before midnight as word of his death began trickling out,
waving United States flags, shouting in happiness and chanting "USA!
USA!"
"This is important news for us, and for the world," said
Gordon Felt, president of the Families of Flight 93, the airliner that
crashed into the Pennsylvania countryside after passengers fought with
hijackers. "It cannot ease our pain, or bring back our loved ones. It
does bring a measure of comfort that the mastermind of the September
11th tragedy and the face of global terror can no longer spread his
evil."
Mr. bin Laden escaped from American troops in the
mountains of Tora Bora, Afghanistan, back in 2001 and although he was
widely believed to be in Pakistan, American intelligence had largely
lost his trail for most of the years that followed until picking up a
fresh trail last August. Mr. Obama said in his national address on
Sunday night that it took months to firm up that information and last
week he determined it was clear enough to authorize a secret operation
in Pakistan.
The forces attacked the compound in what Mr. Obama called a "targeted
operation" that left Mr. bin Laden dead. "No Americans were harmed," Mr.
Obama said. "They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a
firefight they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body."
President
Obama noted that the operation that killed Mr. Bin Laden was launched
with the cooperation of Pakistani officials, but the fact that Mr. Bin
Laden killed in an deep inside Pakistan was bound once again to raise
questions about just how much Pakistan is willing to work with the
United States, since Pakistani officials denied for years that Mr. Bin
Laden was in their country.
The capture of Mr. Bin Laden comes as
relations between the United States and Pakistan have fallen to their
lowest point in memory as differences over how to fight al Qaeda linked
militants became clearer.