KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — News of Osama bin Laden's death has stirred strong emotions, from a profound sense of relief across much of the globe to outrage among sympathisers who vowed to avenge the al-Qaeda leader.
Most world leaders yesterday welcomed President Barack Obama's announcement of the helicopter raid on a compound in Pakistan, congratulating the US for killing bin Laden or expressing satisfaction that the search for the world's most wanted terrorist was over.
"This is the fate that evil killers deserve," said outgoing Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, deploring the harm that bin Laden did to "the image of Islam and Arab causes".
French President Nicolas Sarkozy hailed "the tenacity of the United States" in its hunt for the mastermind of the September 11 attacks. Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi called his death a "great result in the fight against evil".
Spontaneous, celebratory rallies broke out in New York City at ground zero, where the World Trade Centre towers fell nearly 10 years ago, and outside the White House where Obama announced bin Laden's death.
"Here in New York, it is impossible not to be reminded of the murderous legacy of Osama bin Laden," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said while on a visit to the city. "He and the al-Qaeda network have been responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people across the world, including the Arab world."
Ashton said "we need to remain vigilant in our efforts to completely disable the al-Qaeda network, as the threat of retaliatory action remains serious".
In Afghanistan, where bin Laden was given refuge by the country's previous Taliban rulers, local officials erupted in applause when President Hamid Karzai told them the news.
"(His hands) were dipped in the blood of thousands and thousands of children, youths and elders of Afghanistan," Karzai told reporters, and repeated his claim that the fight against terrorism should not be fought in Afghan villages, but across the border in hideouts in Pakistan where bin Laden was killed.
But others in the war-torn nation disagreed about bin Laden's legacy.
"He was like a hero in the Muslim world," said Sayed Jalal, a rickshaw driver in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad. "His struggle was always against non-Muslims and infidels, and against superpowers."
But Brian Deegan, a lawyer from the southern Australian city of Adelaide, felt a "cold shiver" rather than relief when learning about bin Laden's death on a car radio. He lost his 21-year-old son Josh in al-Qaeda-linked bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali in 2002.
"I don't gain any satisfaction in his death — nothing will bring Josh back to me," Deegan said.
The Vatican said Christians could never rejoice about the death of any human being. But spokesman the Rev Federico Lombardi said bin Laden was responsible for having caused the deaths of countless innocents and for having used religion to spread "division and hatred among people".
Outside the iconic Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, India — one of the sites of the 2008 terror siege that killed 166 — some people didn't believe bin Laden was dead. Others said killing him had made the world a little safer.
"It's a good feeling there is one terrorist less," said Sufyan Khan, a 20-year-old Muslim student.
Elsewhere, those who followed or sympathised with bin Laden expressed shock and dismay, or vowed revenge.
"My heart is broken," Mohebullah, a Taliban fighter-turned-farmer in eastern Afghanistan, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "In the past, we heard a lot of rumours about his death, but if he did die, it is a disaster and a black day."
Salah Anani, a Palestinian-Jordan militant leader accused of links to al-Qaeda, said, "There will soon be another leader."
Meanwhile, political pundits in the US yesterday acknowledged that with the death of bin Laden, Obama has delivered on a campaign pledge in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election.
He drew intense criticism from all corners, even from Joe Biden, the Delaware senator who became his vice-president, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, his chief rival for the Democratic nomination who is serving as his secretary of state. But Obama didn't waver.
Now, in the early days of his re-election campaign, Obama is in a clear position of political strength as Americans finally are able to savour the death of the man responsible for the September 11 attacks. Republicans who have long and successfully painted Democrats as weak on national security face a far tougher task in making that case against a triumphant Democratic incumbent.
In political terms, Obama is certain to reap political benefits from the killing of bin Laden after a decade-long, frustrating manhunt. The success inoculates Obama from Republican-led criticism that he's not tough enough to take on terrorists, not experienced enough to be commander in chief, and not decisive enough to lead a country still vulnerable to attacks.
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