News: Death of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan

In the night between Sunday and Monday, the leader of the Islamist network Osama bin Laden was killed during an assault by US special forces (Navy Seals) against a property in Pakistan.

The leader of the Al-Qaeda Islamist network, who was hiding in a vast, heavily guarded residential compound in Abbottabad, was fatally shot in the head. Three other men died, including a son of Osama bin Laden, as well as a woman whose identity is currently unknown.

Even though leaders of many countries hailed the death of Osama bin Laden as a spectacular victory against international terrorism, the terrorist threat did not disappear with his death. In any case, he no longer exercised effective control over a network fragmented into geographically isolated groups.

When news of Osama bin Laden's death spread, thousands of enthusiastic Americans gathered in Washington and New York to celebrate the event and remember the victims of the September 11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

Since late 2001, Osama bin Laden had managed to evade the United States by hiding in the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan, despite a wave of intense bombing. American intelligence services tracked him down by following one of his couriers for more than four years.

Although he was untraceable for years, Osama bin Laden continued to record and deliver messages of threats against the West and support for Islamist extremists around the world.

Source: www.reuters.fr