Al-Qaeda has confirmed the death of Osama bin Laden and vowed to mount more attacks on the West.
The announcement by the Islamist network, which promised to publish a taped message from Bin Laden soon, appeared likely to silence doubts expressed by some that he had died at all.
In a statement online, it said Bin Laden's blood ‘is more precious to us and to every Muslim than to be wasted in vain’.
‘It will remain, with permission from Allah the Almighty, a curse that hunts the Americans and their collaborators and chases them inside and outside their country.’
The group urged Pakistanis to rise up against their government to ‘cleanse’ the country of what it called the shame brought on it by Bin Laden's shooting and of the ‘filth of the Americans who spread corruption in it’.
‘Before the sheikh passed from this world and before he could share with the Islamic nation in its joys over its revolutions in the face of the oppressors, he recorded a voice recording of congratulations and advice which we will publish soon, God willing,’ the group said.
Anger and suspicion between Washington and Islamabad has shown no sign of dispersing.
A US drone killed 17 in northwest Pakistan today, despite warnings from the Pakistani military against the mounting of attacks within its borders.
One of Bin Laden's wives, Amal Ahmed Abdulfattah, told Pakistani interrogators the al-Qaeda leader had been living for five years in the compound where he was killed by US forces this week, a Pakistani security official told Reuters.
The revelation appeared sure to heighten US suspicions that Pakistani authorities have been either grossly incompetent or playing a double game in the hunt for Bin Laden and the two countries' supposed partnership against violent Islamism.
Pakistani security forces took between 15 and 16 people into custody from the Abbottabad compound after US forces removed Bin Laden's body, said the security official.
Those detained included Bin Laden's three wives and several children.
Obama meets Navy Seals who killed Bin Laden
US President Barack Obama is meeting members of the US Navy Seal team that raided Osama bin Laden's secret hideaway.
Mr Obama travelled to the Fort Campbell army base in Kentucky and meet members of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment who participated in the operation.
More conflicting accounts of the al-Qaeda leader's death in the Pakistan city of Abbotabad have emerged.
White House officials have now said that only one person shot at the elite unit as it entered the fortified compound, backtracking on the original claim that commandos came under intense fire.
The officials said the story had become clearer as the Navy Seal team were debriefed.
The revelations came after the US President made an emotional return to Ground Zero yesterday, paying tribute to those killed by al-Qaeda on 11 September 2001.
During his visit, swiftly organised after Bin Laden's killing, he laid a red, white and blue floral wreath at the site of the World Trade Center and met relatives of those killed in the attacks.
Before travelling to Ground Zero yesterday, Mr Obama had visited a fire station in Manhattan that lost 15 men.
He told fire fighters that the shooting of Bin Laden 'sent a message around the world', that 'when we say we will never forget, we mean what we say'.
Speaking at the Engine 54, Ladder 4, Battalion, Mr Obama said the raid had transcended party politics, and he promised the crews: 'I just want to let you know that you are always going to have a president and an administration who has got your back.'
Meanwhile, it was revealed that information gleaned from material found at Bin Laden's compound indicated that al-Qaeda considered attacking US trains on the tenth anniversary of the 11 September attacks.
However, White House counter-terrorism officials said they believed the plot was only 'aspirational' and had no recent intelligence about any active plan for such an attack.
It is thought analysts uncovered the details while sifting through reams of information held in computers, DVDs and documents that were confiscated during the raid at the compound in Abbottabad.
