The head of the Russian volatile North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia said on Monday the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was a big success that would reduce terrorist activity in Russia and around the world and improve the image of Islam.
"I am sure that the elimination of bin Laden will stabilize the situation in the world and decrease the activity of international terrorist organizations, including those operating in Russia," Yunus-Bek Yevkurov told RIA Novosti by phone.
Bin Laden was killed early on Monday in a special operation carried out by U.S. military in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, 50 kilometers outside Islamabad.
Bin Laden, on the top of the U.S. most wanted list, was behind the deadly September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States that killed nearly 3,000 people.
The killing of such "odious terrorist leaders" as bin Laden will improve the image of Islam around the world, Yevkurov said.
Ingushetia is one of the most volatile republics in Russia's North Caucasus where dozens of terrorist attacks are staged every year. Yevkurov himself was badly injured on June 22, 2009, when his motorcade was hit by a car packed with explosives driven by a suicide bomber.
MAGAS (INGUSHETIA), May 2 (RIA Novosti)
