Pakistan Confirms Bin Laden´s Death, Taliban Vows Revenge

(Published Prensa Latina)

Osama Bin Laden

The Pakistani government on Monday confirmed the death of Osama Bin Laden, leader of the Al Qaeda network, in an operation by U.S. soldiers less than 100 kilometers from the capital.

The Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that the operation in Abbottabad, about 60 kilometers from Islamabad, was in line with the express U.S. policy of the elimination of Bin Laden by U.S. forces wherever he was found.

After describing the death of one of the most-wanted men in the world as a serious setback for terrorist groups everywhere, the Foreign Ministry statement said that U.S. President Barack Obama had telephoned his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari to inform him of Bin Laden´s death.

Obama issued a surprise message to the U.S. nation shortly before midnight on Sunday saying that a U.S. commando had killed Bin Laden in a residence in Abbottabad, and that he had phoned Zardari shortly after confirming the kill.

In Pakistan, the insurgent organization Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan threatened on Monday to carry out attacks in that Islamic country and in the United States to avenge Bin Laden´s death.

“If Bin Laden attained martyrdom, then we will avenge his death and we will attack the governments of Pakistan and the United States and their security forces,” said a spokesman for the rebels, Ehsanullah Ehsan, in a telephone call to several news media in Pakistan.

The Al Qaeda network is said to have close ties with the Pakistani Taliban movement.

Shortly after the kill was made public, Zardari met with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the army high command, but no details of the meeting were released.