'Al-Shabab Seeking to Avenge bin Laden'

Sun May 15, 2011 2:59AM

Slain al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden
Al-Shabab group has prepared a number of bomb attacks in the capital Mogadishu to avenge the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, a Somali police official says.

“According to very reliable sources, violent elements prepared at least seven bombers to target key locations in Mogadishu, including hotels, military bases, bus stations and markets to avenge bin Laden's death" AFP quoted Somali police spokesman Abdulahi Hassan Barise as saying on Saturday.
He added that the plots had earlier been hatched during a meeting between senior al-Shabab members in Afgoye district, situated some 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of Mogadishu.
US President Barack Obama claimed that Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces on May 1 in a hiding compound in Pakistan.
A US official later announced that bin Laden's body was abruptly buried at sea, falsely boasting that his hasty burial was in accordance with the Islamic law, requiring burial within 24 hours of death.
However, burial at sea is not an Islamic practice and Islam does not have a decree on a burial timeframe.
US officials also claimed their decision of the sea burial was made because no country would accept his remain, without elaborating on which countries were actually contacted on the matter.
Analysts, however, have raised serious questions as to why US officials did not allow for the application of a DNA test to officially confirm the identity of the corpse before the quick sea burial.
Former officials with Pakistan's military and intelligence service say the US wrongfully claims it has killed bin Laden in Pakistan as part of a scheme to invade the country for harboring the terrorist leader.
Furthermore, Obama announced in a televised interview that he decided not to publish “disturbing images” of bin Laden's dead body to avert “a national security risk” and due to concerns that it might be used as a “propaganda tool.”
The US has also rejected growing arguments that the US military effort against bin Laden in Pakistan was illegal, describing the operation as “an act of national self-defense.”
US Attorney General Eric Holder told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that the killing of bin Laden was lawful and consistent with US values.
According to US media reports, many US lawmakers now insist that the time for a US withdrawal from Afghanistan has arrived, arguing that the main aim of the US troop deployment to Afghanistan was to kill or capture Osama.