Osama bin Laden perishes in US commando raid

Washington: International terrorist and Islamic jihadi figurehead, Osama bin Laden, today perished in a hail of gunfire inside a highly secure compound deep inside Pakistan, cut down by a team of CIA-led, US Navy SEALS (SEa, Air and Land) special operations team. The team, which landed inside Pakistan in the city of Abottabad north of the Pakistani capital Islamabad, on military helicopters has recovered bin Laden's body and has also confirmed DNA identification of the slain jihadi leader.

The special operation brings to a close one of the world's highest-profile manhunts, involving a decade-long search. A shadowy figure Osama bin laden became a global household name after responsibility for the infamous 9/11 twin tower attacks in the United States were pinned on him and his organisation, what the Americans referred to as the al Qaeda.

The organisation so referred to never called itself by this nomenclature and had another long-winded name to describe itself.

The news of the action was announced by US president Barack Obama in a late night TV address from the White House.

"Justice has been done," the president said. Bin Laden, he said, "murdered thousands of innocent men, women and children" and his death was "the most significant achievement to date" in the US war against the al Qaeda.

From reports emerging, as attributed to top US administration officials, the successful effort to track down bin Laden focussed on two brothers described as trusted couriers for al Qaeda. Apparently they were protégés of Khalid Sheik Muhammed, the self-proclaimed operational mastermind of the 11 Sept.2001 attacks.