Gaza Hamas leader condemns killing of bin Laden

Ismail Haniya, the head of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, on Monday condemned the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a US raid in Pakistan. "We condemn any killing of a holy warrior or of a Muslim and Arab person and we ask God to bestow his mercy upon him," Haniya said during a meeting with journalists in Gaza. "If the news is true, then we consider it a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and bloodshed against Arabs and Muslims," he said. In the West Bank, however, Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad welcomed bin Laden's death, saying he hope it would end a "dark era." "I would definitely view this as a major, indeed mega landmark event," Fayyad said at a news conference. "It is certainly our hope that this would mark the beginning of the end of a very dark era." President Barack Obama announced late on Sunday that US forces operating in Pakistan had killed bin Laden in a raid near the capital, Islamabad. Obama said he had directed US armed forces to launch an attack against a heavily fortified compound in Abbottabad, north of Islamabad, acting on a lead that first emerged last August. US media later reported that the Al-Qaeda leader's body had been buried at sea, in a manner in keeping with Islamic tradition. Haniya said he condemned bin Laden's killing "despite the difference in interpretations between us," an apparent reference to the ideological differences between the Palestinian group and Al-Qaeda. Hamas identifies itself as an Islamic movement, but it is not committed to the ideology of worldwide jihad espoused by Al-Qaeda and has clashed with Salafi groups in Gaza that claim to be inspired by bin Laden's organisation. In April, two alleged Salafi militants, one of them Jordanian, were killed in a Hamas raid as security forces tried to detain them in connection with the murder of Italian peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni. A third militant was wounded in the raid and taken into custody. Two others suspected of involvement in Arrigoni's kidnapping and killing had already been arrested. In August 2009, Hamas responded withforce when a radical Salafist group declared an Islamic "emirate" from the platform of a Rafah mosque, and 24 people were killed in the clashes that ensued.