Late on Friday evening senior officials of the Taliban, considered as Osama Bin Laden’s closest allies, confirmed that Osama was indeed killed by the U.S. SEALS during a raid in his Abottabad lair in Pakistan. The statement from the Taliban came within hours of a similar one from Al Qaeda thus bringing to an end speculation that bin Laden was perhaps not killed during the raid. The most disturbing part of the statement was perhaps the fact that the Taliban and Al Qaeda vowed to fight on and claimed that the Al Qaeda wasn’t an organization that “fades away with his departure”.
Within hours of the statement hitting the World Wide Web, Kandahar, the southern city of Afghanistan was attacked by gunmen and suicide bombers. The fierce attack was led on several government buildings and the attack killed eight people of which six were from the group of insurgents and several others were injured in an assault that lasted throughout the day. Witness accounts claim that gunfire continued for hours in the cuty center as heavy fighting broke outside the strongly guarded compound if the Governor, the intelligence agency, police outposts and even the mayor’s office. All this while major explosions could be heard.
The U.S. intelligence is now on its toes for what it fears may be a backlash for the death of Al Qaeda’s inspirational leader, Bin Laden. There is high alert amongst government officials as they race to dissect and undo any terror plots that may look to causing innocent human casualties.
