ANALYSIS Americans continued to celebrate the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden well into May 2 outside the White House, near the World Trade Centre site in New York and elsewhere.

The operation that led to Osama’s death at a compound deep in Pakistan is among the most significant operational successes for United States intelligence in the past decade.

While it is surely an emotional victory for the US and one that could have consequences both for its role in Afghanistan and for relations with Pakistan, Osama’s elimination will have very little effect on al-Qaeda as a whole and the wider jihadist movement...