Bangladesh Defence

Declan Walsh in Abbottabad, Ewen MacAskill
in Washington and Jason Burke in New Delhi
guardian.co.uk, Monday 2 May 2011 11.47 BST
Article history
Osama bin Laden was killed by US special force at
a compound in Abbottabad
Osama bin Laden was killed by US special forces
at a compound in Abbottabad, near the Pakistani
capital, Islamabad. Photograph: AP
Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the 11
September 2001 attacks and the world's most
wanted man, has been killed in a US operation in
north-western Pakistan, Barack Obama has
announced.
"Justice has been done," the US president said in a
statement that America has been waiting a
decade to hear. A US official said Bin Laden had
already been buried at sea.
US special forces launched a helicopter-borne
assault on a closely guarded compound in
Abbottabad, 30 miles north-east of Islamabad, on
Sunday night, Obama and US officials said.
Bin Laden resisted the attackers and was killed
along with three other men in a firefight. The
operation lasted 40 minutes. The dead included
Bin Laden's most trusted courier, who carried his
messages to the outside world, and one of Bin
Laden's sons, according to reports.
A woman also died, according to some reports.
It is not clear whether she was one of Bin Laden's
four wives.
US forces "took custody" of Bin Laden's body,
Obama said in a televised statement from the
White House. A US official said Bin Laden had
been buried at sea, the AP news agency reported.
Senior administration officials said the body
would be handled according to Islamic practice
and tradition. That practice calls for burial within
24 hours.
Pictures on the Pakistani TV station Express 24/7
showed flames rising from what is said to be the
site of Bin Laden's last stand: a building
surrounded by trees and high walls.
There had been years of speculation that Bin
Laden was hiding in the remote tribal areas of
Pakistan or across the border in Afghanistan. But
the town where he was found, Kakul, lies a short
distance from Islamabad and is home to the
country's main military training institution, the
Pakistan Military Academy. It is several hundred
miles from Waziristan, where the CIA drone
strike campaign has been concentrated.
The fact that Bin Laden was killed in a urban area
of Pakistan will raise questions about how the six-
foot-four fugitive, one of the most famous faces
in the world, managed to survive there for so
long.
Obama praised Pakistan for its "close counter-
terrorism co-operation". But officials said the US
was the only country that knew in advance of the
operation.
An official with Pakistan's Inter-Services
Intelligence declined to comment other than to
say that it was a "highly sensitive intelligence
operation".
The dramatic news closes one chapter in the
global turmoil sparked by the September 11
attacks on America that killed 3,000 people in
2001. The event triggered the war in Afghanistan,
was used as a pretext for the invasion of Iraq and
inflicted grievous damage on America's moral
authority after the CIA torture of al-Qaida
suspects and the detention of more than 700
people at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba.
The death of the Saudi-born fugitive is likely to
have a major impact on US foreign policy in
south Asia, where almost 100,000 soldiers are
fighting in Afghanistan and CIA drones have been
pounding al-Qaida targets in north-west Pakistan.
"It's a game changer," said a senior western
diplomat in Afghanistan. "But just what it will
mean is not clear yet."
There may be political repercussions at home.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the White
House before midnight to celebrate, singing The
Star-Spangled Banner and chanting "USA, USA".
The success that eluded George Bush sharply
increases Obama's chances of re-election next
year.
As a candidate during the 2008 election campaign
Obama repeatedly vowed: "We will kill Osama
bin Laden."
Despite the massive resources America devoted
to the "war on terror", as the Bush administration
termed it, Bin Laden has remained at large for
almost a decade. Obama said more than two
years ago that he had ordered the CIA to make
the capture or killing of the Saudi-born fugitive its
priority.
Obama's big break came last August when the
CIA learned of a location where Bin Laden may
have been hiding : a tree-lined, high-walled
compound near Abbottabad, a town in the
foothills of the Himalayas two hours' drive north
of Islamabad.
In February the CIA confirmed that Bin Laden was
hiding in the compound, part-owned by his
courier. On closer examination it appeared to be a
custom-built hideout.
The compound was eight times bigger than
neighbouring residences and the walls were
between three and six metres high, topped with
barbed wire. Access was highly restricted.
Although valued at over US$1m, the residence
had no phone or internet connection.
After numerous conferences with advisers
Obama ordered the operation on Sunday night.
US officials said two American helicopters were
involved but one crashed and had to be blown
up.
US military bases and embassies around the
world have been put on high alert amid fears that
al-Qaida might retaliate.
Bin Laden's second-in-command, Ayman al-
Zawahiri, remains at liberty.
Obama, seeking to avoid an air of triumphalism,
adopted a dignified, low-key tone during his
announcement. "Tonight I can report to the
American people and to the world that the United
States has conducted an operation that killed
Osama Bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida and a
terrorist who's responsible for the murder of
thousands of innocent men, women, and
children." He said the death would not mean an
end to the violence and predicted al-Qaida would
continue to pursue attacks.
Bin Laden's death sparked a frenzy of speculation
on al-Qaida's future. Experts have debated for
many years how important the leader is to the
organisation. Some argued that because Bin
Laden promoted decentralised fighting, with
individuals acting on their own initiative, his death
would make little difference. Others insisted Bin
Laden and the other top al-Qaida leaders such as
al-Zawahiri were crucial to the continued
existence of the group.
Though Bin Laden was an icon for many, his
message of violence had been increasingly
rejected across the Islamic world. From around
2005 repeated polls indicated flagging support for
him personally and for his organisation.
The events of this spring, which saw popular
mobilisation across the Arab world under slogans
of democracy and pluralism, have been seen by
many analysts as evidence of al-Qaida's
increasing marginalisation and the failure to
achieve its key strategic aim of radicalising large
masses of population to lay the basis for the
establishment of a new caliphate – a Muslim state
governed only by Islamic law.
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