Americans Put on Alert Amid Warnings of Al Qaeda Retaliation

As Americans celebrated the news that Usama bin Laden had been killed following a decade-long international manhunt, they also faced renewed warnings that Al Qaeda and its affiliates may seek to exact revenge for the killing of their longtime leader. 

U.S. officials, while congratulating the CIA-led SEALs team that took down bin Laden, sent out a wave of alerts overnight about the possibility of retaliation. 

"They want to avenge this," Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told Fox News. 

Authorities have sent a notice to diplomatic personnel around the world telling them U.S. "diplomatic facilities" are now on "high alert" after bin Laden's death. The notice described the security situation as "severe," though it noted "no specific security threats have been identified." 

The New York and Los Angeles police departments have both issued alerts to officers in the field, telling them to be particularly vigilant in light of bin Laden's death. 

The State Department overnight also issued a travel alert to U.S. citizens abroad, urging caution "in areas where recent events could cause anti-American violence." The department instructed Americans to limit travel outside their homes and hotels and avoid mass gatherings. 

The Department of Homeland Security sent out a warning that offered a bit more detail. The warning, obtained by Fox News, said Al Qaeda affiliates "may seek to accelerate plotting efforts in the homeland, particularly Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula." 

That Yemen-based offshoot has been blamed for two attempted attacks on the U.S. since December 2009, most notably the so-called Christmas Day bombing plot. The Homeland Security alert noted that the affiliate's online magazine, Inspire, "provides encouragement and instructions for individuals in the United States to conduct attacks here without traveling overseas to receive training and support." 

Former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told Fox News that there are two scenarios he's particularly worried about. First, he said the Yemen-based Al Qaeda affiliate could continue to move forward with planning on attacks on America in response. He also said the bin Laden strike could trigger a "spontaneous reaction" from a lone-wolf sympathizer. 

The LAPD alert cited a similar concern, warning of "attacks that might originate with individuals in the Homeland sympathetic to AQ but lacking a formal group association." 

King, R-N.Y., said the intelligence community is surely on the lookout for any signs of an emerging retaliatory plot. 

"For a while, Al Qaeda's going to be off its game, but they will recoup quickly enough," King told Fox News. "We have to move quickly now to take advantage of this temporary confusion with Al Qaeda, but also we have to be on our guard because they have suffered a massive defeat and Al Qaeda's going to want to avenge this as quickly as they possibly can."

Osama bin Laden is dead, Obama announces

Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind al-Qaida, is dead, President Obama announces from the White House

• Declan Walsh in Islamabad, Richard Adams in Washington and Ewen MacAskill in Washington
• guardian.co.uk, Monday 2 May 2011 04.00 BST
• Article history

Osama bin Laden has been killed by US operatives in Pakistan, President Obama announced. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Osama bin Laden, the criminal mastermind behind al-Qaida and the world's most sought-after terrorist since the attacks of 11 September 2001, has been killed by a US operation, President Barack Obama has announced.

In an address to the nation, President Obama said Bin Laden was killed in a "targeted operation" in Abbottabad, a highland town north of Islamabad, last night.

The operation started with an intelligence lead last August, and culminated in an operation involving a "small team of Americans". "After a firefight they killed bin Laden."

None of the Americans was killed. Pakistani co-operation "helped to lead us to him" he said.

Osama's body is in possession of the US, according to the first reports from the US television networks.

As the news spread, crowds gathered outside the gates of the White House in Washington DC, singing the national anthem and cheering.

President Obama made the highly unusual Sunday night live statement to announce the news at around 11.30pm eastern time.

Bin Laden's capture comes eight years to the day that President George Bush declared "mission accomplished" in Iraq. As president, Bush declared he wanted bin Laden "dead or alive" – but it is now the unlikely figure of Barack Obama who has been able to announce the final triumph as US commander-in-chief.

This is a turning point in the global "war on terrorism" that has been waged since 9/11 - and the news will reverberate around the world.

The news comes as an unparalleled boost for US foreign policy, the key aim of which since 2001 has been the disarming and dismemberment of al-Qaida, and coincidentally probably ensures the re-election of Obama in 2012.

As a candidate during the 2008 election campaign, Obama repeatedly vowed: "We will kill Osama bin Laden." And so it has proved.

The Obama statement was scheduled originally for 10.30pm, but the need to inform US congressional leaders caused the delay.

In the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, one western diplomat described the news as a "game changer" – not just for al-Qaida, but also for US foreign policy in Pakistan and Afghanistan, a region embroiled in turmoil and violence since 2001.

"I'm overjoyed," said the diplomat. "But what this exactly means is really not clear."

Some analysts fear bin Laden's death could spark a precipitous US withdrawal from the region, with the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan still unresolved.

It will likely also reconfigure relations with Pakistan, where the CIA is engaged in a controversial assassination campaign against senior al-Qaida figures using Predator and Reaper drones.

"He's dead," said an official with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, declining to give details other than to say that it was "highly sensitive intelligence operation".

The official said he was "not at liberty" to give further details on the killing, including on reports that Pakistani intelligence was involved in the operation. "We'll release more information later this morning," he said.

Abbottabad is about two hours' drive north of Islamabad, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It is not part of the tribal belt, where the CIA drone strike campaign has been concentrated, but is home to the Pakistan military's main training institution, the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul.

The fact that bin Laden was killed outside the tribal belt in Pakistan will raise questions about how the six-foot four-inch fugitive, one of the most famous faces in the world, managed to escape justice for so long.

Pakistan's intelligence services have largely co-operated with the US in capturing al-Qaida fugitives - some of the most notorious figures seized since 2001 were caught in Pakistan's cities such as the architect of 9/11, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad.

In recent months US military and intelligence officials have publicly complained that the ISI has been assisting the Haqqani network, an al-Qaida-linked militant network that straddles the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.