Live news and reaction

• US special forces kill Al-Qaida leader • Shootout at Abbottabad, near Pakistani capital • Jubilation in New York at death of 9/11 sponsor • Get the latest news and reaction here 12.23pm: Not surprisingly, the Pakistani Taliban is threatening retaliation: “Now Pakistani rulers, President Zardari and the army will be our first targets. America will be our second target,” Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Taliban Movement of Pakistan, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location. 12.21pm: So where exactly did the world’s most wanted man die? Somewhere near the Pakistani Military academy, a Pakistani military centre and the Abbottabad golf club, according to Google maps 12.15pm: Right. It’s just gone midday and time for a quick summary on the staggering events of the last few hours: • Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida, has been killed in Pakistan during a raid by US special forces, who launched a helicopter-borne assault on a closely guarded compound in Abbottabad, 30 miles north-east of Islamabad, on Sunday night. • 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. • His body was buried at sea yesterday, “in accordance with Islamic law and traditions”. • The raid was conducted solely by US forces and the Pakistani government was not informed of the operation until it was over. • President Obama has made a statement declaring that “justice has been done”. • Thousands of Americans have taken to the streets to celebrate Bin Laden’s killing. • The international community has welcomed the news ; the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has condemned it and hailed Bin Laden an “Arab holy warrior”. • US military bases and embassies around the world have been put on high alert amid fears that al-Qaida might retaliate, and the UK has warned its citizens to “be vigilant”. 12.03pm: Hamas has just issued a very strongly-worded statement on the killing of a man it terms “a holy Muslim warrior”, Reuters reports. “We regard this as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood,” Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, told reporters. Though he noted doctrinal differences between bin Laden’s al-Qaida and Hamas, Haniyeh said: “We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior. We ask God to offer him mercy with the true believers and the martyrs.” 12.00pm: A bit more from that remarkable White House briefing, courtesy of my colleague Mark Tran, who’s sifting the transcript. This passage deals with the courier who eventually led the US to Bin Laden himself. From the time that we first recognised bin Laden as a threat, the CIA gathered leads on individuals in bin Laden’s inner circle, including his personal couriers. Detainees in the post-9/11 period flagged for us individuals who may have been providing direct support to Bin Laden and his deputy, Zawahiri, after their escape from Afghanistan. One courier in particular had our constant attention. Detainees gave us his nom de guerre or his nickname and identified him as both a protégé of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of September 11th, and a trusted assistant of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, the former number three of al Qaeda who was captured in 2005. Detainees also identified this man as one of the few al Qaeda couriers trusted by bin Laden. They indicated he might be living with and protecting bin Laden. But for years, we were unable to identify his true name or his location. 11.56am: My colleague Esther Addley has come across this arresting little fact from the New York Times : it seems President Obama authorised the raid at about the time that Prince William and Kate Middleton were getting married on Friday. Not earth-shattering, admittedly, but interesting to learn what other epochal events were going on far from Westminster Abbey … At 8:20 that morning, Mr Obama met with Thomas Donilon, the national security adviser; John O. Brennan, the counterterrorism adviser; and other senior aides in the Diplomatic Room at the White House. The president was traveling to Alabama later that morning to witness the damage from last week’s tornadoes. But first he had to sign off on the final plan to send intelligence operatives into the compound where the administration believed that Bin Laden was hiding. 11.50am: Here’s what Pakistan’s foreign ministry has to say about the raid: In an intelligence driven operation, Osama Bin Laden was killed in the surroundings of Abbotabad in the early hours of this morning. This operation was conducted by the US forces in accordance with declared US policy that Osama bin Laden will be eliminated in a direct action by the US forces, wherever found in the world. Earlier today, President Obama telephoned President Zardari on the successful US operation which resulted in killing of Osama bin Laden. Osama bin Ladin’s death illustrates the resolve of the international community including Pakistan to fight and eliminate terrorism. It constitutes a major setback to terrorist organisations around the world. Al-Qaida had declared war on Pakistan. Scores of al-Qaida sponsored terrorist attacks resulted in deaths of thousands of innocent Pakistani men, women and children. Almost, 30,000 Pakistani civilians lost their lives in terrorist attacks in the last few years. More than 5,000 Pakistani security and armed forces officials have been martyred in Pakistan’s campaign against al-Qaida, other terrorist organisations and affiliates. Pakistan has played a significant role in efforts to eliminate terrorism. We have had extremely effective intelligence sharing arrangements with several intelligence agencies including that of the US. We will continue to support international efforts against terrorism. It is Pakistan’s stated policy that it will not allow its soil to be used in terrorist attacks against any country. Pakistan’s political leadership, parliament, state institutions and the whole nation are fully united in their resolve to eliminate terrorism. 11.47am: Sticking with the “whither al-Qaida?” theme, here’s a piece from Gulf News which suggests that the organisation has lost its relevancy in the Middle East. “There is a new alternative to al-Qaida through democracy which we are witnessing now especially with the Arab Spring revolution,” Hussain Shobokshi, a columnist for Al Sharq Al Awsat commented on Monday. Riyadh Fahad, a Bahraini analyst, said: “Bin Laden has already lost the support he initially had. He did have some backing among some religious Sunnis in the beginning, but all that faded away after his followers carried terrorist attacks against civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. “His followers lost their ‘attraction power’ after they started calling Muslims who did not embrace their ideology ‘traitors’. It was unacceptable to those who were initially fascinated by the new ideology towards a world of dignity and pride before realizing it was a murderous mirage,” he said. 11.40am: I’m looking at a (very long) transcript of the White House briefing on the raid. It’s bound to be full of good stuff, but one part jumps straight out — and directly contradicts the claims that this was anything other than a purely US operation: We shared our intelligence on this Bin Laden compound with no other country, including Pakistan. That was for one reason and one reason alone: We believed it was essential to the security of the operation and our personnel. In fact, only a very small group of people inside our own government knew of this operation in advance. Shortly after the raid, US officials contacted senior Pakistani leaders to brief them on the intent and the results of the raid. We have also contacted a number of our close allies and partners throughout the world. Those few lines speak volumes about Washington’s attitude to Pakistan. 11.35am: What does Nato make of the killing? Here’s a statement from the secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen: I congratulate President Barack Obama and all those who made the operation against Osama Bin Laden possible. This is a significant success for the security of Nato allies and all the nations which have joined us in our efforts to combat the scourge of global terrorism to make the world a safer place for all of us. Nato made clear that it considered the September 11 attacks on the United States an attack against all allies. We remember the thousands of innocent lives lost to terrorist atrocities in so many of our nations, in Afghanistan, and around the world. As terrorism continues to pose a direct threat to our security and international stability, international cooperation remains key and Nato is at the heart of that cooperation. Nato Allies and partners will continue their mission to ensure that Afghanistan never again becomes a safe haven for extremism, but develops in peace and security. We will continue to stand for the values of freedom, democracy and humanity that Osama Bin Laden wanted to defeat. 11.32am: Here’s a statement from the US embassy in Kabul, courtesy of Jon Boone. Note the sombre and decidedly unjingoistic language: The Statement by the President of the United States on the death of Osama bin Laden speaks for all Americans. Afghans have suffered as much as any other nation from the campaign of terror that he and his extremist followers undertook. His victims — Afghan, American and from many other nations — will never be forgotten. As President Obama said, “Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims.” This victory will not mark the end of our effort against terrorism. America’s strong support for the people of Afghanistan will continue as before. 11.29am: Others are less excited by reports of Bin Laden’s demise: The prominent Riyadh-based Saudi journalist Jamal A Khashoggi — who fought alongside Afghans and other Arabs including Osama Bin Laden in the war against the erstwhile Soviet Union in the 1980s — described Bin Laden’s killing as no big news. “If you ask me, it is no news because I expected this to happen a long time ago,” he told Arab News in an exclusive interview. Khashoggi said the fact that Osama survived for this long after Sept 11, 2001, attacks was the real story. “It was a big failure of US intelligence,” he said. ( Via Arab News ) 11.27am: What does all this mean for al-Qaida and the wider world? One expert on Islamic groups predicts that OBL’s death leaves a hole that will be tricky to fill — and that AQ’s international power will diminish: “Bin Laden so far represented the charisma leadership and the symbol for the organisation, whose absence will result in a vacuum that cannot be filled easily,” said Mohammad Abu Romman.” However, he expected Bin Laden’s assassination to have “minimal repercussions in the Arab street, because the event came in the middle of a spate of pro-democracy and pragmatic Arab uprisings that tangibly weakened the legitimacy of al-Qaeda’s thought”. “Therefore, I believe al-Qaeda’s activity will be increasingly confined to the Arab countries in future and to become a local player with its role as international player shrinking.” More here 11.19am: Slight change of pace. Abbottabad, according to Wikipedia, is named after General Sir James Abbott, who was a British officer in Colonial India. More here . 11.16am: My colleague Brian Whitaker has drawn this to our attention. It’s an early reaction to the news from The Arabist blog by Issandr El Amrani A bittersweet moment: he deserved to die, but it took so long to track him down, despite all of the billions spent in intelligence and high-tech defence gear, that by the time he died it seemed almost irrelevant to the wider problems of the region. Also, to think of all the time and lives wasted, and the unnecessary, criminal ventures like the war on Iraq that were justified in the name of fighting Bin Laden. But I’m a believer in revenge, and symbolically this is important for the US, and for the families of the victims of 9/11. Let’s hope this might be used as an occasion to turn the page in US foreign policy. Several things do strike you, though. First, outside of Pakistan and the US this won’t be much of a big deal — and it probably wouldn’t have been either at any point in the last decade, which goes to show how the alarmism about Bin Laden being some kind of popular figure in the Muslim world was misplaced. Secondly, where’s Ayman Zawahri? And thirdly, the amount of Pakistani complicity with Bin Laden really seems beyond the pale. 11.12am: Jon Boone, our man in Afghanistan, has a line on whether the death of OBL will have a profound impact on US policy towards Afghanistan: Gerard Russell, a former first secretary at the British Embassy in Kabul, currently back in Afghanistan as part of his work at Harvard University, thinks it could. He tells The Guardian: “The important question is where does this place Obama as opposed to Osama? He has an element more freedom to decide what he wants to do. If he wants to draw down more substantially this summer I think he probably could – hard to know, but he has more freedom.” However Russell is not sure whether it will improve the odds on serious peace talks getting under way. “For the Americans it makes it easier to have talks; for the Taliban it doesn’t change the situation greatly, other than showing them the reach of the Americans [into safe havens in Pakistan] – that might be very alarming for the Taliban.” 11.10am: The Foreign Office is telling British nationals to “be vigilant and monitor the media” in the wake of OBL’s death, warning that it may lead “to an increase in violence and terrorist activity”. The Foreign Secretary has today asked all our Embassies and High Commissions overseas to review their security. We advise British nationals overseas to monitor the media carefully for local reactions, remain vigilant, exercise caution in all public places and avoid demonstrations, large crowds of people and public events. Doesn’t seem to be any specific advice on Pakistan. 10.49am: AP have a little more on OBL’s compound in Abbottabad, which, it points out is less than half a day’s driver from the border region with Afghanistan. Locals said large Landcruisers and other expensive cars were seen driving into the compound, which is in a regular middle-class neighbourhood of dirt covered, litter-strewn roads and small shops. Cabbage and other vegetables are planted in empty plots in the neighbourhood. Salman Riaz, a film actor, said that five months ago he and a crew tried to do some filming next to the house, but were told to stop by two men who came out. “They told me that this is haram [forbidden in Islam],” he said. Abbottabad resident Mohammad Haroon Rasheed said the raid happened about 1:15 am local time. “I heard a thundering sound, followed by heavy firing. Then firing suddenly stopped. Then more thundering, then a big blast,” he said. “In the morning when we went out to see what happened, some helicopter wreckage was lying in an open field.” Qasim Khan, 18, who lives in a house just across the compound, said he saw two Pakistani men going in and coming out of the house often in the past several years. One of them was relatively a fat man with a beard, he said. “I never saw anybody else with the two men but, some kids sometime would accompany them. I never saw any foreigner.” 10.44am: The EU Observer reports that the EU’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Vygaudas Usackas, has welcomed the news that Bin Laden has been “finally hunted down” in Abottabad. “It could be a game changer in boosting the morale and confidence of the US and international community that the efforts and sacrifices of almost the past 10 years of involvement in Afghanistan and in the region are not in vain.” The killing, according to Usackas “will inject the regional players with confidence to move forward with greater cooperation and steps in support of peace and reconciliation”. 10.41am: The people at the Muslim youth organisation the Ramadhan Foundation have emailed us a press release. This from its chief executive, Mohammed Shafiq: Osama bin Laden has been responsible for preaching hatred and using terrorism to kill innocent people around the world and it would have been more suitable for him to be captured alive and put of trial in an international court for the crimes he has committed. Victims of terrorism by al-Qaida should have had the chance to see him brought to justice. Al-Qaida is a murderous organisation that runs totally against Islam, their actions to use terrorism around the world is not sanctioned by our faith, which promotes peace and protecting human life. Every human should be held responsible for their actions in a court of law and Osama Bin Laden is no different. There will be a need to calm and extra vigilance and that time is now. Despite seeing no justice for the victims in this world as Muslims we believe that now these crimes will be left to Allah to judge. 10.37am: Richard Norton-Taylor, the Guardian’s security editor, has been talking to his British intelligence sources. Here’s a taste of what they’ve been telling him about Bin Laden’s death and what it means: “He was a nominal head, a figurehead, but that’s what’s important about it”, said one official. “It is a significant day”, said another well-placed official. Bin Laden’s death is unlikely to lead to an assessment that the terror threat level in Britain, already high, should be increased, sources said. A “loner” might take it on him or herself to mount a retaliatory attack but any groups already plotting an attack were unlikely to change their plans one way or another. This appears to be the view in security and intelligence circles. “People are planning [attacks] anyway”, said one official. 10.32am: And just to make the fakery a little clearer 10.31am: The picture purporting to show a dead Bin Laden is a fake, as suspected. It first surfaced a couple of years ago here . 10.27am: Amrullah Saleh, who is the former head of the National Directorate of Security — Afghanistan’s equivalent of MI5 — has been letting off steam about the fact that Osama bin Laden managed to hide in plain sight in Pakistan. Ben Farmer, the Daily Telegraph’s Afghanistan correspondent, has tweeted this: 10.15am: As soon as the euphoria and relief die down, people are going to be asking how exactly OBL managed to live undetected in a huge and very distinctive compound in a Pakistani town with a massive military presence. The Times of India is already suggesting that the episode will prove highly embarrassing for the Pakistani government and security services. And that, the paper says, is why some officials are trying to claim Pakistan played a major part in the action — despite Obama’s statement that “a small team of Americans carried out the operation”. In a glaring counter-narrative, Pakistani security officials claimed Bin Laden was nailed in a joint operation between CIA and Pakistani forces. “It was carried out on a very precise info that some high-value target is there,” one Pakistani official was quoted as saying. US analysts uniformly suggested this was clearly aimed at ducking charges of the Pakistani military’s possible role in hiding bin Laden. ”This is hugely embarrassing for Pakistan,” was a common refrain on US TV channels throughout the night. The rest of the piece is here 9.59am: We’ve heard a lot of reaction from the US and a bit from the UK and elsewhere, but what are Bin Laden’s followers and sympathisers saying? A snapshot of their feelings can be found here on the Jihadology website , which monitors Jihadi commentary. Here’s a taster: “O Allah, make this news not true” “Allah protect us in our loss” “God willing, news is not true. Catastrophic if it is authentic.” “Jihad will not stop because of Sheikh’s death, it will continue until we gain victory.” “If it is true then we must thank Allah that America was not able to capture him alive. Else they would be humiliating him like Saddam Hussain. At last he may have find his greatest desire of Shahada.” “Think not of those killed in the way of Allah dead, but alive with the Lord. We consider him a martyr. O Allah, accept the martyrs. And join us by the Lord of the Worlds” 9.53am: Some facts and figures on the building that was home to the most wanted man on the planet: • The home is in Abbotabad, a town about 35 miles (60 km) north of Islamabad, which is relatively affluent and home to many retired members of Pakistan’s military. • The building — about eight times the size of other nearby houses — sat on a large plot of land that was relatively secluded when it was built in 2005. When it was constructed, it was on the outskirts of Abbotabad’s centre, at the end of a dirt road, but some other homes have been built nearby in the six years since it went up. • Massive security measures included 12- to 18-foot (3.6 metres to 5.5 metres) outer walls topped with barbed wire and internal walls that sectioned off different parts of the compound. • Few windows of the three-story home faced the outside of the compound, and a terrace had a seven-foot (2.1 metre) privacy wall. • Despite being valued at $1m, the lair had no telephone or internet connection – for obvious reasons. 9.48am: More details emerging on the compound, which appears to have been home to OBL, his family and two brothers, one of whom served as the al-Qaida chief’s most trusted courier. “When we saw the compound where the brothers lived, we were shocked by what we saw: an extraordinarily unique compound,” a senior administration official said. “The bottom line of our collection and our analysis was that we had high confidence that the compound harbored a high-value terrorist target. The experts who worked this issue for years assessed that there was a strong probability that the terrorist who was hiding there was Osama bin Laden,” another administration official said. 9.39am: The Vatican has just put out a line saying that Bin Laden will have to answer to God for killing so many people and stirring up religious hatred. This from Reuters: Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said that while Christians “do not rejoice” over a death, it serves to remind them of “each person’s responsibility before God and men”. He added: “Osama bin Laden, as everyone knows, had the grave responsibility of having spread division and hate among people, causing the deaths of an innumerable number of people and exploiting religion for these purposes.” 9.27am: As you doubtless know by now, Osama bin Laden is dead, killed by US special forces during a raid on a heavily fortified villa in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad. A quick summary of what we have been told so far: • President Obama authorised the raid. In a statement to the US, he said: “A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.” • His body was buried at sea yesterday, “in accordance with Islamic law and traditions”. • Details are beginning to emerge about the compound where Bin Laden was killed. It was built in 2005, had high walls, few windows, and no phones or internet connection in an effort to avoid detection. It was also apparently home to a pair of brothers who served as the Al-Qaida leader’s couriers. A family living inside matched the profile of Bin Laden’s. • Huge crowds have taken to the streets of New York to celebrate the news • The New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has said he hopes the news will “bring some closure and comfort to all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001″. • Former President George Bush has described the death a “momentous achievement” which marks “a victory for America”. • Sarah Palin has described the death as “a testament to the hard work and dedication of these brave Americans who relentlessly hunted down our enemy”. • Read our earlier live coverage here Osama bin Laden al-Qaida United States US foreign policy Pakistan CIA US military Obama administration Sam Jones guardian.co.uk

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