Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted man, is dead, US president Barack Obama has confirmed.
The man held responsible for the terrorist attacks in New York on September 11 2001, and the London bombings of July 7 2005, was killed in a US operation in Pakistan.
Speaking from the White House, President Obama said he authorised the operation. The body of the Al Qaida leader was now in US custody, he said.
A jubilant crowd gathered outside the White House as word spread of bin Laden's death after a global manhunt that lasted nearly a decade.
"Justice has been done," the President said.
Former US president George Bush said he had congratulated Mr Obama after hearing about bin Laden's death. He also congratulated the men and women of the military and intelligence communities who devoted their lives to the mission. "This momentous achievement marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones on September 11 2001," he said, adding that the US "has sent an unmistakable message: no matter how long it takes, justice will be done."
Prime Minister David Cameron said news of bin Laden's death would "bring great relief to people across the world".
The US later put embassies on alert and warned Americans of al Qaida reprisal attacks.
The development comes just months before the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon, orchestrated by bin Laden's al Qaida organisation, that killed more than 3,000 people.
The attacks set off a chain of events that led the United States into wars in Afghanistan, and then Iraq, and America's entire intelligence apparatus was overhauled to counter the threat of more terror attacks at home. Al Qaida was also blamed for the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 231 people and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in Yemen, as well as countless other plots, some successful and some foiled.
Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2011
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