2Bangalore Main Edition-pg9-0.qxd (Page 1)

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2Bangalore Main Edition-pg9-0.qxd (Page 1)

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• Publié par: ycyzadom
• Nombre de lectures: 45
• Langue: Français

Extrait

a thousand terrorists

2002-5

Pakistan

aptures a series of militants

elieved to be close to bin

aden, including Abu

ubaydah, and Khalid Sheikh

ohammed, who is believed

o have organised the

eptember 11 attacks.

2003

The US leads an

nvasion of Iraq, which it

ccuses of making weapons

f mass destruction and

lso, according to officials, of

having helped al Qaeda.

2004

Pakistan begins a

military operation to tackle

fighters near the Afghan

border where bin Laden and

Zawahiri are thought to be.

2005

Pakistan says its

intelligence services have

lost track of bin Laden for

almost a year. Separately,

Afghan president Hamid

Karzai says the fugitive is not

in Afghanistan.

2006

Then US

intelligence chief John

Negroponte says bin Laden is

believed to be operating in

the Afghan-Pakistan border

area. US Congress

appropriates $200 million for

a special unit to track down

and catch bin Laden.

However French intelligence

services report that

according to the Saudis, the

elusive militant has died of

typhoid fever in Pakistan.

2007

Six years after the

September 11 attacks, bin

Laden is shown in a video in

which he praises one of the

militants who carried out the

suicide attacks.

2009

A United States

counterterrorism official

says that one of Osama bin

Laden’s sons may have

been killed by an American

missile strike on Pakistan

earlier in the year.

2010

Pakistani prime

minister Yousuf Raza Gilani

says that bin Laden is not in

his country. CIA chief Leon

Panetta says bin Laden is

very well hidden and

protested in a tribal region of

Pakistan.

2011

US president

Barack Obama says that the

United States has killed bin

laden and recovered his

body during a commando

operation at Abbottabad, a

city just north of Islamabad.

Dubai:

Officials, experts and

Islamist extremists warned

on Monday that the Western

powers should brace them-

selves for revenge attacks by

supporters of slain al Qaeda

kingpin Osama bin Laden.

International police agency

Interpol alerted national

forces to “a heightened terror

risk from al Qaeda affiliated or

al Qaeda inspired terrorists as

a result of bin Laden’s death.”

Several

countries

an-

nounced they were stepping

up security measures in the

wake of Sunday’s US military

operation, in which com-

mandos shot dead bin Laden

in an assault on his Pakistani

villa hideout.

Hague’s French counter-

part, Alain Juppe, also

warned against “excessive

optimism” in the wake of the

killing, saying: “al Qaeda still

exists. There are deputies.

There are structures.”

Meanwhile, supporters of

bin Laden’s violent campaign

took to militant internet sites

to vow revenge.

“The lions will remain li-

ons and will continue moving

in the footsteps of Osama. O

Allah, America will not enjoy

safety and security until we

live it in Palestine,” one user

wrote on the Shumukh al-Is-

lam forum.

“The

celebrations

are

amusing. Cheer all you want

infidel, you only have a limit-

ed amount of time in this life

in which to do it,” another

wrote.

“The US will unfortunate-

ly suffer, because Jihadists

have a tendency to avenge

their slain chiefs,” warned

Matthieu Guidere, a French

academic who specialises in

the Arab world.

One militant Islamist fo-

rums said that they prayed the

news of Osama bin Laden’s

death was not true and hint-

ed at retaliation if it was.

“Oh God, please make this

news not true... God curse you

Obama,” said one message on

an Arabic language forum.

“Oh Americans... it is still le-

gal for us to cut your necks.”

“Osama may be killed but

his message of Jihad will

never die. Brothers and sis-

ters, wait and see, his death

will be a blessing in disguise,”

said a poster on another Is-

lamist

forum.

Others

ridiculed the celebrations in

the US”. Please let them cele-

brate, they are celebrating

their own end,” said Abu Az-

iza on the Islamic Awakening

forum. “Oh Allah, destroy

this nation for their hatred to-

ward your deen (religion).”

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pak-

istan threatened to attack the

US and Pakistan over the

killing of Osama in the US op-

eration in Pakistan.

—Agencies

Beirut:

Some Arabs mourned

him as a holy warrior and

martyr, while others saw him

as a ‘pillar of evil’ whose dead-

ly attacks on the United States

unleashed a backlash against

Muslims across the world.

From his Saudi birthplace

to the Gulf Arab shores and

Palestinian territories, the

death of al Qaeda leader

Osama bin Laden highlighted

the sharp divide between sub-

jects and rulers, radicals and

moderates across the Arab

world.

The US-backed Palestinian

Authority

welcomed

bin

Laden’s killing as “good for

the cause of peace”. Its rival

and prospective power-shar-

ing partner, Islamist Hamas,

deplored his death. “We con-

demn the assassination and

the killing of an Arab holy

warrior,” said Ismail Haniyeh,

head of the Hamas adminis-

tration in Gaza, which faces a

challenge from al Qaeda-in-

spired groups that consider it

too moderate. “We regard this

as a continuation of the Amer-

ican policy based on oppres-

sion and the shedding of Mus-

lim and Arab blood.”

Those who revered bin

Laden were still in denial

about his death but many in

the Arab world felt it was long

overdue. Some said the killing

of bin Laden in a raid by US

forces in Pakistan was scarce-

ly relevant in an Arab world

fired by popular revolt against

oppressive leaders who had re-

sisted violent Islamist efforts

to weaken their grip on power.

“Bin Laden is just a bad

memory,” said Nadim Houry

of Human Rights Watch in

Beirut. “The region has moved

way beyond that, with massive

broad-based upheavals that

are game-changers.”

For many Arabs, the news

of bin Laden’s death had less

significance than it once

might have. Egyptian Karim

Shafei, 37, head of a real estate

firm, said: “A lot of the sym-

pathy towards bin Laden from

the Middle East in the past

came from the fact that people

were oppressed. The removal

of their dictators could signal

a greater move away from rad-

icalism or symbols of radical-

ism.”

The al Qaeda leader’s

bloody attacks, especially

those of 9/11, once resonated

among some Arabs who saw

them as just vengeance for

perceived indignities heaped

upon them by the US, Israel

and their own American-

backed leaders. He called for

jihad against foreign “infidel”

forces in Muslim lands — the

Soviet army in Afghanistan,

the Americans in Saudi Ara-

bia from the time of the 1990

Gulf crisis, or the Israelis in

Palestine.

But al Qaeda’s indiscrimi-

nate violence never gal-

vanised Arab masses. On the

contrary, it generated anger at

Muslim casualties inflicted by

suicide bombings in Saudi

Arabia, Iraq and elsewhere.

Many believe bin Laden and al

Qaeda brought catastrophe on

the Muslim world as the Unit-

ed States retaliated with two

wars, in Afghanistan and Iraq,

and the word ‘Islam’ became

associated with ‘terrorism’.

“The damage bin Laden

had caused Islam is beyond ap-

palling and a collective

shame,” said Mahmoud Sab-

bagh, a Saudi, on Twitter.

Ahmed Saleh, a 58-year-old

retired Palestinian, said:

“The world is better without

bin Laden. It has removed a

pillar of evil from the world.

His heinous actions were ex-

ploited to allow hostile poli-

cies towards the Arabs and

Muslims.”

A rival view sees bin

Laden as the only Muslim

leader to take the fight

against Western dominance

to the heart of the enemy —

in the form of the 9/11 at-

tacks on New York and Wash-

ington in 2001.

Tareq al-Zumar of Egypt’s

Islamist group al-Gama’a al-

Islamiya, which took up arms

against the state in the 1990s

said: “Bin Laden will become

a symbol of resistance to oc-

cupation. The US killing of

bin Laden will undoubtedly

galvanise reaction and retal-

iation attempts.

Egypt’s influential Muslim

Brotherhood said US troops

should now quit Iraq and

Afghanistan. Other Islamists

in Egypt, whose thinkers

have inspired Islamic move-

ments and activists around

the world, said bin Laden’s fol-

lowers should review their

methods because their actions

had only made the ‘enemy’

more aggressive.

—Reuters

Jihadists will plan

retaliation attacks

Laden’s death leaves

al Qaeda in disarray

Osama leaves behind a terrorist network that is weak and diffused

Washington/London:

The killing

of Osama bin Laden will deal a

big psychological blow to al

Qaeda but may have little prac-

tical impact on an increasing-

ly decentralised group that has

operated tactically without

him for years.

Nearly a decade after the

9/11 attacks, al Qaeda has frag-

mented into a globally-scat-

tered network of autonomous

groups in which bin Laden

served as an inspirational fig-

ure from the core group’s tra-

ditional Pakistan-Afghanistan

base. Counter-terrorism spe-

cialists describe a constantly

mutating movement that is

harder to hunt than in its turn

of the century heyday because

it is increasingly diffuse — a

multi-ethnic, regionally dis-

persed and online-influenced

hybrid of activists.

Al Qaeda leadership has

been weakened by years of US

drone strikes in Pakistan. It

has not staged a successful at-

tack in the West since London

bombings that killed 52 people

in 2005. Al Qaeda has also been

hurt ideologically by uprisings

in the Arab world by ordinary

people seeking democracy and

human rights — notions anath-

ema to bin Laden, who once

said democracy was akin to

idolatry as it placed man’s de-

sires above God’s.

The arm of al Qaeda that

poses the biggest threat to the

US is its affiliate in Yemen, al

Qaeda in the Arabian Penin-

sula (AQAP), according to US

officials. Other al Qaeda-linked

groups have grown in ambition

and lethality.

“As a matter of leadership of

terrorist operations, bin Laden

has really not been the main

story for some time,” said Paul

Pillar, a former senior US in-

telligence official. “The insti-

gation of most operations has

been at the periphery not the

centre — and by periphery I’m

including groups like AQAP

but also smaller entities as

well.”

“Bin Laden’s death is a sig-

nificant victory for the United

States. But it is more symbolic

than concrete,” said Fawaz

Gerges, an al Qaeda expert at

the London School of Econom-

ics. “The world had already

moved beyond bin Laden and

al Qaeda. Operationally al Qae-

da’s command and control had

been crippled and their top

leaders had either been arrest-

ed or killed. More importantly,

al Qaeda has lost the struggle

for hearts and minds in the

Arab world and elsewhere and

has had trouble attracting fol-

lowers and skilled recruits.”

Some analysts say that bin

Laden’s memory may now in-

spire followers, who will now

see him as a martyr, to take re-

venge. And the extensive on-

line forums, chat rooms and

websites operated by al Qaeda

sympathisers will ensure his

role as the group’s motivator-

in-chief will endure. “As a sym-

bol, as a source of ideology, bin

Laden can continue to play

those roles dead as well as

alive,” Pillar said.

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. Thomas Heg-

ghammer, a specialist on mili-

tancy at the Norwegian De-

fence Research Establishment,

said that over the long term his

loss would deepen the group’s

disarray. “It is bad for al Qae-

da and the jihadi movements.

Bin Laden was a symbol of al

Qaeda’s longevity and its defi-

ance of the West. Now that

symbol is gone.”

Egyptian-born doctor and

surgeon Ayman al-Zawahri, al

Qaeda’s second-in-command is

expected to succeed Laden. Za-

wahri has been the brains be-

hind bin Laden and his al Qae-

da network, and at times its

most public face, repeatedly de-

nouncing the US and its allies

in video messages.

In the latest monitored by

the SITE Intelligence Group

last month, he urged Muslims

to fight NATO and American

forces in Libya. “I want to di-

rect the attention of our Mus-

lim brothers in Libya, Tunisia,

Algeria, and the rest of the

Muslim countries, that if the

Americans and the NATO

forces enter Libya then their

neighbours in Egypt and

Tunisia and Algeria and the

rest of the Muslim countries

should rise up and fight both

the mercenaries of Gaddafi

and the rest of NATO,” Za-

wahri said.

—Reuters

No nostalgia for bin

Laden in Arab world

The core of al Qaeda

leadership has been

weakened by years of

US drone strikes in

Pakistan

Ayman al

Zawahri

BANGALORE | TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2011

www.dnaindia.com | epaper.dnaindia.com

9

harboured at Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen

sailors are killed.

2001

Sept 11

I

Three hijacked planes

crash into major US landmarks, destroying

New York’s World Trade Center and plunging

into the Pentagon. A fourth hijacked plane

crashes in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people

are killed. In a video released later, bin Laden

says the collapse of the towers exceeded al

Qaeda’s expectations.

2001

Oct 7

I

United States attacks

Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, host to bin Laden

and al Qaeda.

2001

Dec 6

I

Anti-Taliban forces capture

bin Laden’s main base in Tora Bora mountains

of eastern Afghanistan.

2002

November

I

Al Qaeda claims

responsibility for three suicide car bombs in

Kenya which blew up the Mombasa Paradise

resort hotel, popular with Israelis, killing 15

people and wounding 80.

2008

May 18

I

Bin Laden urges Muslims

to break the Israeli-led blockade of the Hamas-

controlled Gaza Strip, and fight Arab

governments that deal with Israel.

2010

January 24

I

Bin Laden claims

responsibility for the failed Dec 25 bombing of

a US-bound plane in an audio tape and vows to

continue attacks on the United States.

2010

March 25

I

Bin Laden threatens al

Qaeda will kill any Americans it takes prisoner

if Sept 11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,

held by US, is put to death, according to an

Al

Jazeera

audiotape.

2011

May 2

I

Osama bin Laden is killed

in a million-dollar compound in the resort of

Abbottabad, 60km north of the Pakistani

capital Islamabad by US forces in an action-

packed operation.

The fight against

terror goes on, but tonight

America has sent an

unmistakable message: No

matter how long it

takes, justice will be done

—George Bush,

ex-US president

This is a resounding

triumph for justice,

freedom and the values

shared by all democratic

nations fighting in

determination against

terrorism

—Benjamin Netanyahu,

Israeli PM

For years we have

said that the fight against

terrorism is not in

Afghan villages and

houses. It is in safe

havens, and today that

was shown to be true

—Hamid Karzai,

Afghan president

I welcome the death o

Bin Laden. Whilst al Qaeda

has been hurt today, it is

not finished. We continue to

be engaged in Afghan so it

doesn’t become a haven fo

terrorists.

—Julia Gillard,

Australian PM