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Osama Bin Laden killed in Pakistan: Obama
Osama bin Laden killed in Pakistan: Obama
Updated 3.45pm May 2 2011
President Barack Obama has confirmed that Osama Bin Laden the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks on the United States is dead.
Obama said the world's most wanted man had been killed by after a ten year man hunt.
It had long been believed that Bin Laden had been hiding out in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border region, where he had often sent out audio and video messages urging his supporters to attack America and its allies.
Bin Laden formed the militant Islamic terrorist group Al Qaeda which shocked the world with its September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre towers and the Pentagon.
Al Qaeda and its offshoot groups have been held responsible for numerous other attacks across the world since then in Europe and Asia.
Bin Laden and his supporters were driven out of Afghanistan after the US and its allies invaded the country and they have been hunting him ever since.
President Obama speaking from the White House confirmed the death saying it revenged the murder of the thousands of US citizens. President Obama said the US had gone too war with Bin Laden and his supporters and the capture or killing of Bin Laden had been one of his administration’s highest priorities.
Last year the US had been given a lead to his whereabouts and last week the president had authorized an operation.
US special forces had killed Bin Laden in a firefight and there were no American casualties.
``His death does not mark the end of our effort,’’ President Obama said.
He believed Al Qaeda would fight on, but the war was not against Islam.
Pakistani forces had helped in the operation and the Pakistani administration had welcomed Bin Laden’s death, he said
CNN reported that Bin Laden had been killed in an attack on a mansion outside the Pakistan capital Islamabad in a joint operation with Pakistani security officials and US special forces.
Bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia to a Yemini family where his family became wealthy in the transport and logistics sectors.
He left Saudi Arabia in 1979 to fight against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and over the years he became radicalised and took up arms against the US and others who he saw as enemies of the Islamic faith.
Shortly after news broke crowds started arriving outside the White House singing the national anthem and chanting ``USA, USA" celebrating the death.
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