Al-Qaida threatens to avenge blood of bin Laden

The terror network said bin Laden’s blood “will not be wasted” and it will continue attacking Americans and their allies.

Bin Laden’s death was confirmed on Monday by US President Barack Obama after US commandos raided his hideout in Pakistan.

Al-Qaida warned of retaliation, saying Americans’ “happiness will turn to sadness”.

The confirmation came in an internet statement posted on militant websites, signed by “the general leadership” of al-Qaida.

The announcement opens the way for the group to name a successor to bin Laden.

His deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, is now the most prominent figure in the group and is a very likely contender to take his place.

The statement, dated May 3, was the first by the terror network since bin Laden was killed on Monday by US commandos in a raid on his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The statement’s authenticity could not be independently confirmed, but it was posted on websites where the group traditionally puts out its messages.

“We stress that the blood of the holy warrior sheikh, Osama bin Laden, God bless him, is precious to us and to all Muslims and will no go in vain,” the statement said. “We will remain, God willing, a curse chasing the Americans and their agents, following them outside and inside their countries.”

“Soon, God willing, their happiness will turn to sadness,” it said, “their blood will be mingled with their tears”.

Meanwhile the UN’s independent investigator on extrajudicial killings has called on the United States to reveal more details of the raid on bin Laden’s Pakistan hideaway to allow experts to assess the legality of his killing.

South African law professor Christof Heyns said in a statement yesterday that Washington “should disclose the supporting facts to allow an assessment in terms of international human rights law standards”.

It also emerged yesterday that a Yemen-born wife of bin Laden said she had been living in the al- Qaida chief’s final hideout for six years without leaving the upper floors of the house.

A Pakistani intelligence official has said the woman is one of three wives of bin Laden being interrogated in Pakistan.

Authorities are also holding eight or nine children found at the compound after the US raid.

Their accounts will show how bin Laden spent his time and could offer glimpses into the inner workings of al-Qaida.

The official did not say if the Yemeni wife confirmed bin Laden had also been living there all that time.

The woman has been identified as Amal Ahmed Abdullfattah.

A Pakistani official said CIA officers had not been given access to the women in custody.

A security official said she was shot in the leg during the operation, and did not witness her husband being killed.

“We are still getting information from them,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, a senior Pakistani intelligence official said bin Laden was “cash strapped” in his final days and that al-Qaida had split into two factions, with the larger one controlled by al-Zawahri.