FBI updates 'Most Wanted' with bin Laden's death

WASHINGTON - The FBI has updated its list of Most Wanted terrorists to note that Osama bin Laden is dead. Its website — with details about bin Laden and the $27 million being offered in rewards — now includes a large red-and-white "deceased" label atop bin Laden's photograph.

Nine other highly sought after terrorists are still included on the FBI's list, including bin Laden's deputy, Ayman Al-Zawahiri. The U.S. government also is offering a $25 million reward for information leading to his capture or conviction. Private groups had added $2 million in rewards on top of the $25 million bounty placed on bin Laden.

Bin Laden was killed in a gun battle with U.S. forces early Monday in Pakistan.

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U.S. officials said the CIA tracked bin Laden to his location, then elite troops from Navy SEAL Team Six, a top military counterterrorism unit, flew to the hideout in four helicopters. Bin Laden was shot in the head in an ensuing firefight, these officials said, adding that he and his guards had resisted his attackers. U.S. personnel identified him by facial recognition, the official said, declining to say whether DNA analysis had also been used.

President Obama said neither Americans nor civilians were harmed in the operation.

The death of the world's most-wanted man came just months before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Centers and Pentagon, orchestrated by bin Laden's al-Qaida organization, that killed more than 3,000 people. The United States attacked Afghanistan within months, pursuing al-Qaida, and an invasion of Iraq followed.

The success of the raid marks a psychological triumph in a long struggle that began with the 2001 attacks, and seems certain to give Obama a political lift. But its ultimate impact on al-Qaida is less clear.

The greatest terrorist threat to the West is now considered to be the al-Qaida franchise in Yemen, far from al-Qaida's core in Pakistan. The Yemen branch almost took down a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas 2009 and nearly detonated explosives aboard two U.S. cargo planes last fall. Those operations were carried out without any direct involvement from bin Laden.

Bin Laden's al Qaeda organization has also been blamed for the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 231 people and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in Yemen, as well as countless other plots, some successful and some foiled.

Perhaps as significant was his ability — even from hiding — to inspire a new generation of terrorists to murder in his name. Most of al Qaeda's top lieutenants have been killed or captured in the years since Sept. 11, 2001, and intelligence officials in Europe and Asia say they now see a greater threat from homegrown radical groups energized by bin Laden's cause.