Al-Qaeda and Islamic militants are vowing to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden by US commandos, declaring him a "martyr" and calling on Muslims to rise up against the United States.
But US President Barack Obama swept aside the militants' defiant reaction, decorating the team that killed their inspirational
leader and pledging the US would crush Al-Qaeda.
"We have cut off their head and we will ultimately defeat them," Obama said after meeting in private with the special forces personnel that raided bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan on Monday and shot dead the Al-Qaeda leader.
Confirming bin Laden's death for the first time, the terror network denounced his slaying urging Pakistani Muslims "to cleanse
their country from the filth of the Americans who spread corruption in it."
The Afghanistan Taliban also joined the chorus of condemnation, as small rallies were held after Friday prayers in several Islamic nations, saying the loss of the architect of the September 11, 2001 attacks would only serve to strengthen its resolve in the fight against "foreign invaders."
"We call upon our Muslim people in Pakistan, on whose land Sheikh Osama was killed, to rise up and revolt to cleanse this shame," Al-Qaeda said in a statement released by the SITE monitoring group.
The Islamist group proclaimed its Saudi-born founder a "martyr," adding he had "terrified all the nations of disbelief."
It vowed the jihadist network would survive, but did not name anyone to take over as its leader.
The White House said it was on alert for security threats as Al-Qaeda also vowed to release an audio tape made by bin Laden just a week before he was shot.
The Obama administration, embroiled in a decade-long war in Afghanistan, is keenly aware of the dangers facing US interests and
nationals abroad.
US forces ousted the Taliban from power in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks in retaliation for harbouring bin Laden on Afghan soil.
And the Afghanistan Taliban said bin Laden's death "will give a new impetus to the current jihad against the invaders in this critical phase of jihad," an email statement released by spokesman Tariq Ghazniwal said.
The leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, also condemned what he called "extrajudicial executions."
"While we disapprove of the methods of Al-Qaeda, particularly actions directed against innocent civilians, we are opposed to the United States or any other party having recourse to extrajudicial executions," he said in a statement to AFP.
Obama on Friday met the elite commando team which carried out the risky helicopter raid on the fortified compound in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad where bin Laden had been hiding.
He said he had told them "job well done" as he handed out Presidential Unit Citations, the highest unit award he has the
power to grant, behind closed doors at an army base at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
The Obama administration has been forced to defend the raid's legality after acknowledging bin Laden was unarmed when he was shot dead.
But new details have been released of the operation after conflicting accounts from the White House.
The SEALs also found an AK-47 and a pistol in his room, a US official told AFP.
"He had weapons in his room, more than one," said the official.
"He was not compliant. He did not surrender."
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