Brief History: Osama Bin Ladens Death & Effect on Al-Qaeda (Essay Sample)

Death of Osama bin Laden: Effect on Al-Qaeda
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Death of Osama: Effect on Al-Qaeda
Osama was the leader of Al-Qaeda, a terrorist group that has caused many deaths of innocent citizens across the globe. He was killed on May 2nd, 2011, in Abbottabad Pakistan through an operation led by the U.S Navy Seals (Brown, 2012). The world leaders led by President Barrack Obama welcomed the death of Osama. His death was seen as a great milestone towards fighting terrorism and religious extremism. Al-Qaeda began its operations in August 1988 and continued its activities “under water” until it became famous following the bombing of American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998 (Hoffman, 2003). Three years later, on September 11th, Al-Qaeda planned and executed attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. It is estimated that about 2996 deaths and over 6000 non-fatal injuries were recorded during the four coordinated terrorist attacks, dreaded as the worst ever on American soil (Schabner & Travers, 2011). Therefore, when the leader of this Islamic extremist group was killed, it was indeed a reason to celebrate. However, to Al-Qaeda, his death was a big blow as the group emerged as a headless chicken. The paper explores the effects of the death of Osama bin Laden on the terrorist group, Al-Qaeda.
Osama bin Laden’s death led to a setback in the core leadership of Al-Qaeda. Bin Laden has been a vital pillar in how the operations of the group were executed. He was central to the world’s most bloody group of terrorists, the Al-Qaeda Network (Bergen, 2001). Besides, he was a spiritual leader and the founder of the organization. Bin Laden’s leadership skills held the group together including the local, regional and international Muslim extremists groups. He was a symbolic operational leader who was behind the driving force of Al-Qaeda’s members, supporters, and sympathizers. Therefore, his death meant that they would not enjoy such leadership qualities that encouraged the group to take the initiative in its dealings (Hoffman, 2003).
Further, bin Laden’s death led to increased fragmentation of Al-Qaeda’s leadership. The war on terror led by Bush and Blair significantly reduced the numerical strength of Al-Qaeda. However, the turn of events necessitated a different turn in how the group ran its affairs. According to Maraia (2011), al-Qaeda increased its influence globally in an unexpected twist of events, a factor greatly attributed to wide media coverage following bin Laden’s death. As a result, new supporters, sympathizers, and members joined the group and furthered its operations using a low-profile approach. The approach meant that new fragments of leaders in different regions dispersed across the globe took the mantle of leadership in the quest to keep bin Laden’s ideologies and what he fought for intact. This led to the formation of several Muslim extremist groups including in Africa, Middle East, Asia and Europe including the Al-Shabab, ISIS, Boko Haram and so forth. These jihadist organizations have like-minded approaches demonstrating a similar level of connectivity (Smith, 2002).
The death of bin Laden led to further spreading of Al-Qaeda’s ideologies and methodologies far and wide. The affiliate groups and sympathizers provided new gateways to global terrorism by spreading extremist ideologies and funding revenge attacks for their fallen leader. Some of the revenge attacks have been carried in several countries including Kenya, Somalia, Mali, Yemen, Pakistan, and Afghanistan among others (Esposito, 2010). The media coverage that these attacks receive further pushes the group’s ideologies, approaches, and methodologies. According to Smith (2002), there are several claims that Al-Qaeda is in the process of leadership reconstruction and terror plots operationalization. The moves included the naming of a new leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to take the mantle of leadership after Osama. Multiple affiliate groups have harnessed their own regional aims directly linked to the core leadership of Al-Qaeda using the various technological, military and intellectual resources and political challenges unique to each country.
In conclusion, Osama bin Laden was the founder and the leader of Al-Qaeda, a terrorist group closely associated with Islam extremists. He was killed by a U. S led operation...