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>> and now, "bbc world news." >> america's decade-long manhunt is over. osama bin laden is dead, killed by u.s. special forces in pakistan. president obama calls it the most significant achievement in america's effort to defeat al qaeda. >> the united states has conducted an operation that killed osama bin laden, the leader of al qaeda, and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children. >> welcome to a special edition of "g.m.t.," devoted to the news that osama bin laden, the leader of al qaeda, the man who

ordered the 9/11 attacks, is dead. i'm stephen sackur with all the latest news and reaction from pakistan, the u.s., and around the world. u.s. officials say osama bin laden's body has already been removed and buried at sea. >> u.s.a.! u.s.a.! >> americans celebrate the death of the world's most notorious terrorist, though president obama warns the al qaeda threat is not over. it's midday here in london, 7:00 a.m. in washington, and 4:00 p.m. in pakistan, where the world's most wanted man has been killed. after the 9/11 attacks, george w. bush pledged osama bin laden would be captured dead or alive, and no one ever believed alive was a likely outcome. the u.s. special forces operation, which killed the al qaeda leader in the town of abbottabad was months in the planning. his compound was lessen from a

kill meter from this pakistani military compound. our first report comes from andrew north in washington, d.c. >> tonight i can report to the american people and to the world the united states has conducted an operation that killed osama bin laden, the leader of al qaeda. >> it's 10 years since osama bin laden attacked the united states on its own shores. 3,000 people were killed on 9/11, the worst attack on american soil since pearl harbor. when bin laden admitted he'd ordered them, he became the world's most wanted man. >> there's an old poster out west as i recall that said, "wanted: dead or alive." >> he was tracked down to the mountains of tora bora after u.s. forces had invaded afghanistan. b-52's bombed the caves he used to hide out, but he escaped over the border into pakistan's tribal areas, and the trail

went cold. u.s. special forces found him, not in the tribal areas, but in the pakistani town of abbottabad. he was sheltering in this compound, filmed here after the u.s. raid. just down the road from a pakistani military base. >> it's an odd feeling in the ballpark right now, to be perfectly honest with you. some of the crowd chanting "u.s.a., u.s.a.." >> the news started spreading across the u.s., even before president obama spoke. crowds flocked to times square in new york. soldiers joining the celebrations. >> ♪ god bless america ♪ >> outside the white house, there were chants of "four more years" for obama. >> the crowds here outside the white house are growing all the time. there's a mood of huge euphoria and relief at what they just heard from president obama. to me, it t also brings back memories of being in the u.s. immediately after september 11

when it was fear that brought people together. and even now, despite the celebrations, there's fear that this is not the end of the story. >> its training camps in afghanistan may be destroyed, but al qaeda has mushroomed elsewhere. its number two, ayman al-zawahiri, is still at large. right now, america is celebrating news many thought would never come -- that osama bin laden is dead. andrew north, bbc news, washington. >> and we are going to get reaction, of course, from all around the world, but we're going to go first to islamabad, the pakistani capital. joining me from there is our reporter. first of all, what reaction has the pakistani government given since president obama made this announcement? >> a few hours back, we had the first official reaction from the pakistani government. the foreign office came out with a statement saying that

the u.s. military carried out this operation, and it sort of lemmingt mized this operation on pakistani soil by saying that americans had made it clear in the past that wherever and whenever they had any lead to osama bin laden in the world, they would go and get him themselves. so that is actually what has happened, and the pakistani government has said that it's already sharing intelligence with americans, and that it will continue to help out against these militant organizations, and it will not let its soil be used against any other countries. >> well, you say that, haroon, but how much embarrassment do you detect in the pakistani government that, in the end, osama bin laden was clearly living for some time in a massive mansion compound just an hour or two north of islamabad? >> yeah, it is a sort of

embarrassment for the pakistani government and its security establishment. many people are asking why they couldn't track him down before the americans could do that, and some of the officials that we have been seeking to off the record have been saying there are several reasons for that, and one of them is the resources and the manpower and the expertise that some of the pakistani institution lacked. so unless those dignities are taken care of, we might in the future as well see many al qaeda high-profile people being taken from cities as we have seen in the past as well. >> haroon rashid, thank you very much for joining us. as he was talking, you probably saw the pictures, the first pictures we are getting of the scenes inside the house, the

compound where osama bin laden and others as well were killed by u.s. special forces. cameras now inside that very large building in abbottabad. we'll bring you more of those pictures as we get them. joining me now from washington, d.c., is the military intelligence analyst with the american security project. joshua, you have been following the bin laden story and al qaeda story for many, many years. how significant do you think this moment really is? >> as a symbol, it's fantastically significant. osama bin laden' very existence has been kind of a thorn in the side for most of the u.s. presidents, countless generals who are running the wars. in terms of its actual operational significance, i don't think you're going to see a substantial change inside afghanistan, or even inside pakistan. at the end of the day, osama bin laden was mostly a figurehead, and he didn't have a whole lot of operational control. >> what does this tell us about the degree to which the u.s. has now penetrated to the very

heart of the al qaeda network, do you think? >> well, there were stories that osama bin laden was tracked down by using his couriers, and this is the technique that u.s. counterterrorism agents have used to track down other people as well. abu saiff was famously tracked down by following the couriers from the top leaders in that group, so they're using pretty tried and true techniques to find this guy. what i find interesting is that in january, another indonesian militant linked to al qaeda was arrested in the same town, so there seems to be some nexus happening there, both of counterterrorism activity, but then also militants choosing to hole up in the area. >> interesting you talk about abbottabad, and that clearly is in the heart of pakistan. it isn't a tribal area, it isn't so remote. what does this tell us about pakistan and its link to terrorist networks? >> well, it's hard to believe that osama bin ladening of living there, even for a short

period of time, literally right next door to the pakistani military academy without anyone knowing. i think it remains to be seen exactly what parts of the government were complicit and what parts were kept out. i think it was interesting that president obama very deliberately excluded referencing the efforts of the pakistani military or intelligence sources in the course of carrying out this raid that got osama bin laden. so, to some extent, we're not giving them the whole story before we go on operations, but it remains to be seen exactly how much is being left out of the picture with them. >> very briefly, joshua, president obama, in his announcement, was careful to warn the american people this did not mean the end of al qaeda. you're an intelligence analyst. do you expect to see retaliation attacks? >> there might be a retaliation attack here or there, but i think more than anything else, this is going to surprise everyone, and we're going to see a very quick return to business as usual. as i said earlier, osama bin laden doesn't have deep operational ties to most of the militant groups that we're dealing with in south asia and

elsewhere. so his death is going to be significant, and it's a huge symbolic victory for the united states in particular, but in terms of day-to-day operations, especially in afghanistan, i don't think we're going to see much of an effect. >> joshua foust, thank you very much for joining us from washington. in new york, hundreds of people made their way to ground zero, the scene of the september 11 attacks. times square has also been a focus for jubilant new yorkers. here's a sample behalf a couple of people said. >> been a long time coming, but i'm sure america and all the allies of america and family members of all the victims feel some sense of relief that, you know, justice has finally been served, and, you know, that will never help them with the pain that they're experiencing, but i'm sure it gives them some measure of closure, and one less terrorist in this world is a great start, and he was a big one, and he's gone now, so hopefully peace will begin to spread. >> it's just amazing. we were walking out of the pizza joint, and all the sudden

we saw in the bar and tv, and everyone just glued. we're standing a bunch of people who are from everywhere. >> not often that you celebrate the death, but this is one of those occasions where it's a good thing as far as i'm concerned. i was hoping that in my lifetime this would happen, and it has happened. it doesn't bring back the people who died in the incident, but i think justice has been done. i'm happy to know that he now knows that there are not 40 virgins waiting for him. >> amazing. amazing. but i'm not sure -- of course, this is a good news, but i'm not sure it will change a lot of things, because al qaeda is such -- i'm not sure it will change a lot of things. >> it was a long time, and it's quite -- it's quite strange that all these countries fighting against him had needed

10 years to find him. >> just a sample of voices there from new york city. go to afghanistan now, the president of afghanistan, hamid karzai, has reacted to the death of osama bin laden. he said many innocent afghans have died at the hands of bin laden, and in the subsequent war on terror that followed 9/11. he said the discovery of bin laden in pakistan vindicated afghanistan's claim that terrorism was not rooted within the country. >> the world should realize that on many occasions, many occasions, yeah, even every day we have said that war against terrorism is not about the rural area of afghanistan. it's not about the houses of suppressed afghans in their houses. it's not about the bombardment

of afghan children and women. it is about havens of those terrorists, and this has been proof. >> let's get more details from america now. of course, we are getting more information minute by minute on what precisely happened in that attack, the u.s. attack on bin laden's compound. steve kingston, our correspondent from washington, d.c., joins me now. and steve, we just saw some pictures from inside that mansion that bin laden was living in. what is the very latest information you're hearing? >> those pictures came from american television. they appear to show blood, u.s. media reports say that is a room in which osama bin laden was killed. they also appear to show computer hard drives that have been ripped apart. possibly by the americans. and what is being reported here by the bbc's partner, it abc news, is that the navy seals

who apparently staged this operation apparently came face to face with bin laden in the compound, abc reports. a small team of american navy seals carrying out what is described as a surgical raid by senior administration officials , apparently did not know where in the three-story compound they were likely to find their target. they walked into a room and reportedly came face to face with osama bin laden, recognized him, ordered him to surrender, it is said. when he didn't surrender, they are said to have fired at his head, and that is standard operating procedure for american special forces in a scenario like this in case the person they're firing at is wearing a suicide vest or similar. so that is how osama bin laden died, according to u.s. networks here. >> steve kingston in washington, d.c., thank you for that extraordinary detail that is now coming in on precisely

what happened when special forces got inside osama bin laden's compound in pakistan. now, still to come on "g.m.t." -- we will gauge international reaction to bin laden's death and see what al qaeda's reaction may be as well. >> let's find out how international markets have been reacting to this dramatic news. jamie has been monitoring, and he's here. >> there has been quite a bit of reaction. the u.s. dollar has rebounded. stock markets have his known asia and in europe. this is after president obama announced that osama bin laden had been killed. oil prices, they slid more than 1%, while safe havens, such as gold and silver, they also lost value. charlie parker from citiwide explained why the markets have his then way. >> particularly american investors, who have described so much personal responsibility to this man for the risk posed to u.s. distance, have decided this is a euphoric moment and

they have priced up the value of risky assets, reduced the value of safe-haven assets like gold and silver. >> do you think this is just a very short-term reaction? >> yes, i think so. most of the people think this is definitely. the markets really are worried about many other things apart from al qaeda. al qaeda obviously does have its role to play in terms of their anxieties, but there are other things out there. there is the whole middle east -- there's problems in syria, there is problems in north africa, libya, anxiety about what the future of egypt is, all those aspects are very, very important. and then, of course, you've got the whole economic recovery. how is the u.s. recovery continuing? at the moment, people are fairly optimistic. it's interesting when you look at markets such as the tokyo market, which despite all the problems in japan, still is powering forward t. took a great big hit after the tsunami and earthquake, but now has been just past 10,000 again. also, we look at the nasdaq, which has reached 10-year

highs, this is despite all the kind of problems which we've been hearing, the geopolitical, the economic problems. it was remarkable resilience out there in the market. >> it never fails. jamie, thank you very much indeed. you're watching get g.m.t." om "bbc world news." >> this is "g.m.t." from "bbc world news." i'm stephen sapp sackur. the headlines -- the leader of al qaeda, osama bin laden, has been killed by american special forces in pakistani. president obama has said he'd been tracked down to a high-walled compound just a kilometer away from the main gate of pakistan's foremost military academy in the town of abbottabad, just outside the capital, islamabad. let's take a look at precisely how osama bin laden became the world's most wanted fugitive.

the story goes back to february 1998. he issued a religious edict stating that killing americans and their allies was a muslim duty. six months later, two bombs rocked the u.s. embassies in kenya and tanzania, killing over 200 people. he was indicted as chief suspect. he's also thought to be behind a suicide attack on the destroyer, u.s.s. cole, at the yemeni port, which killed 17 u.s. marines. and then, of course, there was the september 11 attack in 2001. two hijacked aircraft smashed into the twin towers of the world trade center in new york city. another aircraft targeted the pentagon in washington. a fourth crashed into a field in pennsylvania. altogether, more than 3,000 people died in those attacks. the last known sighting of bin laden before his death by anyone other than his entourage was later that same year as he prepared to flee from tora bora

in afghanistan's mountainous tribal region. so what does osama bin laden's death now mean for al qaeda? joining us on the line from delhi is a journalist and author of "al qaeda: casting a shadow of terror." jason, do you think this is the beginning of the end for al qaeda? >> i think the beginning of the end of al qaeda started a while ago, largely in around 2005, 2006, when it became very clear that their key strategy, which was to radicalize and mobilize very large numbers of people in the islamic world, wasn't working. from around that date, after a surge of sympathy for al qaeda during and after the war in iraq, the invasion in iraq, we saw from that period, from 2005, 2006, all the polls showing that the support for their message, for their methods, for bin laden himself, was dropping away. so, in a sense, this is a

product of the end of al qaeda, without the lack of support that pushed bin laden out of areas where he might have been more secure, this wouldn't have happened. >> jason, insofar as anybody can know this organization, you know it pretty darn well. is there any other figure, do you think, who can exercise the symbolic power that bin laden did within that network? >> no, there isn't. bin laden was one of a kind. he combined an extraordinary talent for propaganda, for oratory, with rhetoric, with a largely mythical, but nonetheless convincing story of being a rich kid who'd given away his riches to live a life of a fighter, who had taken on the soviets himself, again, largely myth on the jiesed, but nonetheless very convincing. all of that is very difficult to put together as a package. there's no one else who's got it. the obvious successor is his

associate, ayman al-zawahiri, but al-zawahiri is older, hasn't got the looks, hasn't got the chris ma of bin laden, and he's going to find it difficult to communicate in the way that bin laden did. bin laden was a strategist, but primarily a communicator, and that kind of person is almost irreplaceable for any organization, particularly a covert organization like al qaeda. >> while you're speaking, jason, we're just looking at some of those archived pictures of jihadees training in al qaeda camps. of course, there are still al qaeda groups around the world, thinking of yemen, somalia maybe, some other places, too. do you think they'll respond to this? >> i don't know if they'll respond directly. they may make some statements, but it's interesting you mention yemen, where a much younger cleric, american-born, actually, yemeni-raised, all sorts of interesting things about him that could bring him into a great deal of prominence

in the years to come now that bin laden's out of the way. but al qaeda was always part of a general movement, part of a broader phenomenon of a militancy. bin laden brought it to great prominence, won it great prestige in a sense, make it the market leader of international jihad. now he's gone. we'll have to see how that evolves t. may not not emerge from al qaeda. somebody may emerge from outside al qaeda. >> a final quick thought, pakistan is central to this story, isn't it? of course, a place where osama bin laden has been killed, but do you foresee real tension now and real difficulties for the pakistani government as a result of what's happened? >> everybody has been foreseeing real change and real difficulties for the pakistani government for about 50 or 60 years, and it's actually never brought the country down. it's a difficult place. it's pretty difficult to understand or even explain from

outside. there will be difficulty, there will be all the normal sort of rhetoric and conspiracy theories and all the rest of it. but this will heal the very troubled pakistani-american relationship, and that alone will do a lot to stabilize the country. >> jason burke, thanks for that insight and analysis. i'm joined now from kabul by haroon, a political analyst who was an aide to afghanistan's former defense minister and leader of the northern alliance. tell me, first of all, afghanistan seems to be crowing about the fact that he was found on pakistani territory. why is that so important? >> for a quite long time, we've been saying that bin laden and the rest of al qaeda leaders, as well as taliban leaders, they are not living in the caves of northern waziristan or the border between afghanistan

and pakistan, but in mansions inside pakistan, and i think today it is proved that some institutions within the pakistani is safe, such as the military establishment are strongly standing behind al qaeda. and we afghans have been suffering for quite long time at the hands of al qaeda and other terrorist networks. they don't come to other muslims, and they are taking some after began women and these arab fighters. they have done it from long time ago, even during the communist time when they were attacking jalalabad. they were taking slaves as infidels that were captured in the battlefield. and this has been continuing, and i think this was a great sense of relief that bin laden is finally killed and justice was brought to him. >> hamid karzai, president of afghanistan, has said that he hopes this is a lesson which the taliban will learn. is there any indication it will have any influence at all on the taliban? >> we are very hopeful that

this mission will be followed on the other leaders of al qaeda and this will not be an isolated attack on bin laden and we should not declare premature victory. there are so many other al qaeda and taliban leaders, and if the pressure will continue on them, i'm pretty sure that they will either abandon fighting or they have to flee and hide themselves in the caves and mountains and will lose their commanding control over the, you know, their networks inside afghanistan. and in the meantime, if pakistan is not under military, economic, and political pressure, they will not abandon their support to al qaeda just by signaling them out by the media. >> all right. haroun mir, thank you very much for joining us from kabul. as all for the moment. a day of dramatic developments. stay with us here on "bbc world news" as we continue to cover the killing of osama bin laden.

there is plenty more to come. >> hello and welcome. >> see the news unfold, get the top stories from around the globe and click-to-play video reports. go to bbc.com/news to experience the in-depth, expert reporting of "bbc world news" online. >> funding was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. and union bank. alit t global expertise to work for a

wide range of companies. what can we do for you? >> bbc world news was presented by kcet los angeles.