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The US is in possession of Bin Laden's body, the reports say. President Barack Obama is due to make a statement shortly.
Bin Laden is top of the US most wanted list.
He is accused of being behind a number of atrocities, including the attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001.
The al-Qaeda leader was killed in a mansion outside Islamabad in an operation based on actionable US intelligence, CNN reported.
Osama bin Laden is dead and his body has been recovered by U.S. authorities, U.S. officials said on Sunday.
U.S. President Barack Obama was to make the dramatic announcement shortly in a hastily called, late-night appearance at the White House.
As they waited for the contents of his statement, multiple news organizations reported sources in the White House had confirmed bin Laden's death almost a decade after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
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The founder and spiritual figurehead for al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, is dead.
Several officials confirmed the report to CBS News, and say that his body is currently in U.S. hands.
President Barack Obama is expected to address the nation on the subject shortly.
Watch President Obama's address on bin Laden live
CBS News correspondent David Martin reports that bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces. While details are still sketchy, CBS News correspondent Chip Reid reports from the White House that officials are saying bin Laden was shot in the head.
The long-lost terrorist mastermind had eluded an aggressive hunt by U.S. authorities for nearly ten years since the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 11, 2001.
Bin Laden's death is a major accomplishment for Mr. Obama and his national security team, as the administrations of both presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush hunted the Saudi-born terrorist.
Security at "strategic places in Pakistan has been beefed up as a precaution against any retaliation to news of Osama bin Laden's death", a senior Pakistani security official told CBS News early on Monday. "If he(bin Laden) is really dead, there will be attempts to seek revenge," said the official who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity.
Former State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said on Twitter: "#BinLaden's death does not eliminate the threat from #alQaeda, but it is hard to see anyone playing the same organizational role he did."
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US president expected to announce that al-Qaeda leader has died and that US is in possession of the body. Last Modified: 02 May 2011 03:31 | |||||||
Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, has been killed, media reports say. US president Barack Obama is due to make a statement shortly in which he is expected to announce bin Laden's death. A US source told the Reuters news agency that bin Laden had been killed in a house outside Islamabad in a US operation. His body is apparently in the possession of the US. Qais Azimy, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Kabul, said that Afghan officials have confirmed that bin Laden had died and that his body was with the United States. Officials said that the death of the al-Qaeda leader was more of a "symbolic victory", as he was no longer directly connected to the group's field operations, Azimy reported. It is a major accomplishment for Obama and his national security team. Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, had repeatedly vowed to bring to justice the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, but never did before leaving office in early 2009. US officials said that after searching in vain for the al Qaeda leader since he disappeared in Afghanistan in late 2001, the Saudi-born fighter is dead and his body recovered. Having the body may help convince any doubters that bin Laden is really dead. He had been the subject of a search since he eluded US soldiers and Afghan militia forces in a large-scale assault on the Tora Bora mountains in 2001. The trail quickly went cold after he disappeared and many intelligence officials believed he had been hiding in Pakistan. While in hiding, bin Laden had taunted the West and advocated his views in videotapes spirited from his hideaway. Besides September 11, Washington has also linked bin Laden to a string of attacks -- including the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 bombing of the warship USS Cole in Yemen. Obama declares Osama bin Laden dead Mon, 02 May 2011 03:04:20 GMT Font size :   
The United States President Barack Obama has announced that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is dead after he was found hiding in a compound in Pakistan. "The US launched a targeted operation on that compound... No Americans were hurt. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden, and took his body," Obama said in a televised speech. "The US has never been and will never be in fight with Islam," he said, adding that bin Laden was also a mass-murderer of Muslims. The development comes almost ten years after the September 11 attacks on the United States. On September 11, 2001, a series of coordinated attacks were carried out in the United States, leaving almost 3,000 people dead. During the incident, 19 reported "al-Qaeda terrorists" hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners and crashed two of them into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the buildings. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C.  
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