BRUSSELS: NATO's chief hailed the death of Osama Bin Laden Monday but said the alliance will continue its mission in Afghanistan to ensure the country never again becomes a terrorist haven. “I congratulate President Barack Obama and all those who made the operation against Osama Bin Laden possible,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement. “This is a significant success for the security of NATO allies and all the nations which have joined us in our efforts to combat the scourge of global terrorism to make the world a safer place for all of us,” he said. “NATO made clear that it considered the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States an attack against all allies,” said Rasmussen, who also paid tribute to the thousands of victims of terrorism around the world. “As terrorism continues to pose a direct threat to our security and international stability, international cooperation remains key and NATO is at the heart of that cooperation,” he added. Afghan president Hamid Karzai urged the Taliban Monday to lay down their weapons and stop fighting his US-backed government, telling them to take heed from Osama Bin Laden who “paid for his deeds”. Karzai insisted Bin Laden's death in Pakistan “proved” the war on terror was not rooted in his troubled country, where about 130,000 US-led troops have been hunting for remnants of Al-Qaeda and their Taliban allies since 2001. Pakistan's main Taliban faction Monday threatened to attack Pakistan and the US after the US confirmed that Osama Bin Laden had been killed near the Pakistani capital. ‘Multiple methods' used to ID body The US used multiple means to confirm the identity of Bin Laden during and after the firefight, senior US officials said Monday. The Al-Qaida leader was identified by name by a woman believed to be one of his wives who was present at his compound at the time of the US raid. The intelligence official said the DNA match, using DNA from several family members, provided virtual certainty that it was Bin Laden's body. US forces administered religious rites for Bin Laden aboard an aircraft carrier Monday in the Arabian Sea, an American official said after the raid. “Today religious rights were conducted for the deceased on the deck of the USS Carl-Vinson which is located in the North Arabian Sea,” a senior defense official said. “A military officer read prepared religious remarks which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker. After the words were complete, the body was placed on a prepared flat-board ... (and) eased into the sea.” The ceremony began at 0510 GMT and ended some 50 minutes later. Anger, relief in Arab world Those who revered Bin Laden prayed the news was not true but many in the Arab world felt the death of Osama Bin Laden was long overdue. Some said the killing of Al-Qaeda founder in Pakistan was scarcely relevant any more, now that secular uprisings have begun toppling corrupt Arab autocrats who had resisted violent Islamist efforts to weaken their grip on power. For some in the Middle East, Bin Laden has been seen as the only Muslim leader to take the fight against Western dominance to the heart of the enemy — in the form of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001. Another strand of opinion believes that Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda brought catastrophe on their Muslim world as the United 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 appalling and a collective shame,” said another Saudi, Mahmoud Sabbagh, on Twitter. In Yemen, Bin Laden's ancestral home and the base for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has been behind recent foiled anti-American attacks, some believed his death would cause his group to lose heart. “Al-Qaeda is finished without Bin Laden. Al-Qaeda members will not be able to continue,” said Ali Mubarak, a Yemeni man in his 50s as he sipped tea in a cafe in Sana'a.
