By Syed Saleem Shahzad
ISLAMABAD - Command of al-Qaeda will be taken over by a select handful of leaders who had been chosen in advance of the death of Osama bin Laden, who was killed on Monday morning in a strike by Pakistani and American special forces on a compound in Abbottabad, about 65 kilometers north of the Pakistani capital Islamabad.
ISLAMABAD - Command of al-Qaeda will be taken over by a select handful of leaders who had been chosen in advance of the death of Osama bin Laden, who was killed on Monday morning in a strike by Pakistani and American special forces on a compound in Abbottabad, about 65 kilometers north of the Pakistani capital Islamabad.
The death of the 54-year-old Bin Laden, who had a US$50 million reward on his head, is also likely to mark the beginning of a shift of the war theater from Afghanistan to Pakistan, al-Qaeda insiders tell Asia Times Online.
Asia Times Online contacts in the North Waziristan tribal area - a militant hotbed - confirmed that several meetings had already been convened in the town of Mir Ali to formulate strategies. They all confirmed an immediate and fierce retaliation against Pakistan and the breaking up of all ceasefire agreements with the Pakistan military.
The US had been on Bin Laden's trail ever since he fled Afghanistan when American forces invaded the country in 2001 to oust the Taliban in retaliation for the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington; Bin Laden and al-Qaeda planned the attacks while guests of the Taliban.
"I can report to the American people and to the world, that the US has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden," President Barack Obama, also the US commander-in-chief, said from the White House. "After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body," Obama said. "The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation's efforts to defeat al-Qaeda."
Read the whole story on: Asia Times Online
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