US President Barack Obama has hailed the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden as a "good day for America," saying the world is now a safer and a better place.
Bin Laden was killed in a raid by US special forces on a compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.
He is believed to have ordered the attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001 and a number of other deadly bombings.
He topped the US "most wanted" list.
DNA tests later confirmed that Bin Laden was dead, US officials said.
He was buried at sea after a Muslim funeral on board an aircraft carrier in the north Arabian Sea, Pentagon officials said.
The US has put its embassies around the world on alert, warning Americans of the possibility of al-Qaeda reprisal attacks for Bin Laden's killing.
CIA director Leon Panetta said al-Qaeda would "almost certainly" try to avenge the death of Bin Laden.
Elusive
"Today we are reminded that as a nation there is nothing we can't do," President Obama said.
Bin Laden, 54, approved the 9/11 attacks in which nearly 3,000 people died.
He evaded the forces of the US and its allies for almost a decade, despite a $25m (£15m) bounty on his head.
On Sunday, US forces said to be from the elite Navy Seal Team Six undertook the operation in Abbottabad, 100km (62 miles) north-east of Islamabad.
The compound in Abbottabad is just a few hundred metres from the Pakistan Military Academy - the country's equivalent of West Point or Sandhurst.
US officials said Bin Laden was shot in the head after resisting.
His body was consigned to the sea after a burial service on the USS Carl Vinson.
"The deceased's body was washed and then placed in a white sheet. The body was placed in a weighted bag. A military officer read prepared religious remarks which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker," a US defence official said.
"After the words were complete, the body was place on a prepared flat board, tipped up, whereupon the deceased's body eased into the sea," the official said. |
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| Osama Bin Laden's hidden compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad near Islamabad. |
Photographs of Bin Laden's body have not been released.
Crowds gathered outside the White House in Washington DC, chanting "USA, USA" after the news broke.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the operation sent a signal to the Taliban in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"You cannot wait us out, you cannot defeat us, but you can make the choice to abandon al-Qaeda and participate in a peaceful political process," she said.
And she said there was "no better rebuke to al-Qaeda and its heinous ideology" than the peaceful uprisings across the Arab world against authoritarian governments. |
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