Chatham House: Bin Laden’s death removes ‘potent symbol’

Dr Maha Azzam, associate fellow in the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House, commented on Osama bin Laden’s death:

“The killing of Osama Bin Laden removes one of the most potent symbols of non-state terrorism in the modern era.

“For almost ten years Bin Laden and his second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri, managed to defy capture, and thus symbolically at least, appear undefeated. But al-Qaida as an organization had been decimated and greatly weakened by the consistent onslaught by US counter terrorism efforts.

“Plus, Bin Laden’s death comes at a time when he had become increasingly sidelined in the Middle East. Nonetheless, he leaves a legacy of a loose network of fringe radicals intent on using terrorism with no objective other than to terrorize simply as a way of saying that they are there.”