Islamist sites close to the terrorist network confirm his death. They also promise revenge and new attacks against the United States. US reticence and silence could have turned Bin laden into another Elvis Presley.

Washington (AsiaNews/Agencies) – After many versions, long silences and much criticism, al Qaeda has decided to help out the United States by confirming that Osama Bin Laden is dead. It made the announcement in a statement posted on several jihadist internet forums.

Since US President Barack Obama claimed last Sunday that Osama Bin Laden was dead, a flood of versions of what actually happened made it into the news. Some said he was not dead; others said he had died years ago, his body put into hibernation and then taken away; still others claimed that he had died a few days before the US action forcing a frustrated United States to stage a fake military operation after its ten-year manhunt.

US reticence over the event helped sow confusion. In a quick succession, different versions were made public: Osama was armed; he was not armed; he used a woman as a shield.

The refusal to publish pictures of the dead body did not help the US case either and could have led to the birth of a new myth like that of Elvis Presley.

Now events have been confirmed by an authoritative source, al Qaeda itself.

A US monitoring group is in fact reporting that Islamist websites are abuzz with the news of their leader’s death, with a flurry of promises to avenge his blood in attacks against the United States.

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