World Hide and Seek Champion Caught

Al-Qaeda founder and leader Osama bin Laden is killed by US ground forces in Pakistan, President Barack Obama says.

The Economic Times reported that the body of Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden has been buried at sea after he was killed by US covert forces in Pakistan, US media reported Monday. Cable television networks CNN, MSNBC and Fox said a senior US official had confirmed to them that bin Laden's body had been buried in the sea, without giving further details.

A US administration official said of the corpse: "We are ensuring that it is handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition. This is something that we take very seriously and so therefore this is being handled in an appropriate manner."

Burying bin Laden's body at sea would ensure that his final resting place does not become a shrine and a place of pilgrimage for his followers, ABC television reported earlier.

Some analysts say that bin Laden's memory may now inspire followers, who will now see him as a martyr, to take revenge. The extensive online forums, chat rooms and websites operated by Al-Qaeda sympathisers will ensure his role as the group's motivator-in-chief will endure. But his departure will add to pressure on morale throughout the network, despite Al-Qaeda's glorification of martyrdom and a perception that bin Laden died an honourable death in battle.

Osama bin Laden was a member of the wealthy Saudi bin Laden family and the founder of the jihadist organization al-Qaeda, responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets. As a result of his dealings in and advocacy of violent extremist jihad, Osama bin Laden lost his Saudi citizenship and was disowned by his billionaire family.

Bin Laden was on the American Federal Bureau of Investigation's lists of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and Most Wanted Terrorists due to his involvement in the 1998 US embassy bombings. Since 2001, Osama bin Laden and his organization had been major targets of the U.S. War on Terror. Bin Laden and fellow al-Qaeda leaders were believed to be hiding near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. After careful monitoring of a compound suspected to be bin Laden's Pakistani residence, U.S. military forces were sent across the border of Afghanistan to launch the attack. Pakistani officials confirmed that bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by the U.S. military.

On May 1, 2011 (Eastern Daylight Time), U.S. President Barack Obama announced on national television that bin Laden had been killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan by American military forces and by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and that his body was in U.S. custody.

The body was recovered by the U.S. military and was in its possession. ABC News has reported that the body has been identified by DNA testing. However, Reuters reports that DNA test results will be available in the next few days and that bin Laden's body was identified using facial recognition techniques. According to a U.S. official on May 2, bin Laden's body was handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition, and was buried at sea soon after death, in accordance with Islamic tradition.