Americans celebrate death of Al Qaeda leader

Streets around the site of the World Trade Center towers filled with thousands of people waving flags. The killing of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in a covert US operation is a "victory for justice" that will bring "great relief" to the world, America's allies said Monday. Announcing the death of the planet's most

wanted man, President Barack Obama said "justice has been done", while his predecessor George W. Bush hailed it as a "momentous" achievement.
But while news of what Israel called the "liquidation" of bin Laden was hailed by governments around the world, many cautioned that the fight against extremism was not over.
And in a sign of the possible tensions to come, India lashed out at its arch-foe Pakistan, saying the Al-Qaeda mastermind's killing north of Islamabad was further evidence that terrorists find "sanctuary" in the country.

Bin Laden, a figure of hate across the West for the September 11, 2001 attacks, was killed in a Pakistani compound in an operation on Sunday, Obama told a global TV audience in a dramatic late-night address.
The news was greeted with jubilation in foreign capitals, with French Foreign Minster Alain Juppe calling it a "victory for all democracies fighting the abominable scourge of terrorism".

British Prime Minister David Cameron said it would "bring great relief to people across the world".
"It is a great success that he has been found and will no longer be able to pursue his campaign of global terror," Cameron said in a statement.
"Osama bin Laden was responsible for the worst terrorist atrocities the world has seen.
"Israel was fulsome in its praise of the United States, its vital security ally.
"The state of Israel joins together in the joy of the American people after the liquidation of bin Laden," said a statement from the premier's office.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulates US President Barack Obama for this victory for justice, liberty and the common values of democratic nations which fought side by side against terrorism."
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said bin Laden's death was "good news for all men in the world who think freely and are peaceful".
Westerwelle's Italian counterpart Franco Frattini called it "a victory of good over evil, of justice over cruelty".Bush, who was president at the time of the September 11 attacks and launched the subsequent war in Afghanistan, said bin Laden's death was a "momentous" achievement and congratulated Obama, US intelligence and military forces.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the news was "welcome", but cautioned "Whilst Al-Qaeda has been hurt today, Al-Qaeda is not finished. Our war against terrorism must continue.

Singapore, which sits in a region where the Al-Qaeda-inspired Jemaah Islamiyah have carried out a number of large-scale fatal attacks, also cautioned that bin Laden's demise did not mean the world was safe.
"This is a significant milestone but terrorism, and the ideologies that perpetuate it, pose complex and long term challenges.
To deal with it will require continued vigilance," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

In New York Crowds jammed the streets around Ground Zero early Monday to celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the September 11 attacks that left deep-rooted scars on New York.
Relatives of the more than 2,700 people killed when the World Trade Centers came down, firemen and police who took part in the rescue and nervous New Yorkers - who have been on alert for the past decade - flocked onto the streets after news that the Al-Qaeda leader had been killed in Pakistan.
"There is no greater joy in my life than to know that this man is dead," said Harry Gomez, a National Guard trooper who was among the first on the scene after Al-Qaeda hijackers flew two jets into the towers on the morning of September 11, 2001
Diane Massaroli joined crowds clutching a photograph of her husband, Michael, a worker at the Cantor Fitzgerald brokerage, was killed in 2001.  None of his remains were ever found. "I feel relief, I feel a closure that I thought I would never get," she told NY1 television. "I just had to come here now".  People are taking pictures of me with the photo of my husband. They are all very sweet.
A fireman in uniform climbed onto a traffic sign to brandish a giant Stars and Stripes flag.
The crowd started singing "Born In The USA" - the anthem of American rocker Bruce Springsteen.

New York firemen who paid a huge human price in the September 11 attacks joined more crowds in Times Square, again singing the national anthem and waving flags.
Just minutes after midnight, New York Fire Department Ladder number 4 truck rolled into the square to be applauded by crowds.
"Ten years and finally we got him," Captain Patrice McLead, from Ladder 4, told AFP.
"After all the loses and such a tragedy, we can finally be happy again.
I hope this will bring a sense of closure, for all of us, including Muslims."
Two of the four hijacked jets crashed into the World Trade Centers on the morning of September 11, 2001.
More than 2,750 were killed in New York out of the approximately 3,000 killed in all.

About 400 police and fire personnel died when the towers crashed down into financial district, others have died since.
"Everything on that day was surreal. No amount of training in the world would prepare you for what happened that day," said Gomez, the National Guardsman.
Zeshan Hamdani, whose brother Mohammad died rescuing victims in the towers, also found relief in the death of bin Laden.
"I am happy but I feel like crying. It's great to finally get this guy," he said.
"The killing of Osama bin Laden does not lessen the suffering that New Yorkers and Americans experienced at his hands," said New York mayor Bloomberg.
"But it is a critically important victory for our nation - and a tribute to the millions of men and women in our armed forces and elsewhere who have fought so hard for our nation.
"New Yorkers have waited nearly ten years for this news. It is my hope that it will bring some closure and comfort to all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001.
The death of bin Laden came one year to day after a Pakistani-American, Faisal Shahzad, failed in an attempt to set off a car bomb in a Times Square sidestreet.
He is now serving a life jail term. Kelly, the city police chief, said there was no evidence of a "specific threat" now but called on all police to remain on alert.
Media reports said the police presence would be heightened in coming days.
Kelly called the killing of bin Laden was "a welcome milestone for the friends and families of those killed on 9/11, and for all who remain tenaciously engaged in protecting New York from another attack."