Pakistan UpdateSuicide bombers receive no death rituals

Afghanistan and Pakistan are said to have lost considerable strength.

• Children play cricket in the rain April 20 in Abbottabad on the grounds of Osama bin Laden’s now-bulldozed compound. One year after the death of bin Laden, al-Qaeda has lost strength, analysts say. [REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro]
• Osama bin Laden is shown in a frame grab from an undated video recovered from his compound in Abbottabad after his death. [Via Reuters]

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Afghan Taliban also seem to have drastically curtailed operations since the bin Laden’s death in Abbottabad, and analysts maintain that al-Qaeda is now more dependent on the TTP than on the Afghan Taliban.
“Osama was the most wanted man in the history of the world,” Prof. Syed Hussain Shaheen Soherwordi, at the department of International Relations of the University of Peshawar, told Central Asia Online. “His death is a big blow for al-Qaeda and the militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Even al-Qaeda is struck by the leadership crises since the death of Osama.”
Soherwordi compared the case to that of the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers. The cornering and slaying of their leader in 2009 ended a civil war dating back to the 1970s.
“The killing of Osama is equal to breaking the backbone of al-Qaeda,” Soherwordi said. “He was a calm man and knew when and where to proceed and when and where to retreat, while Ayman Al Zawahiri is a short-tempered leader and cannot be Osama.”