RELATED:Clinton: US will 'take the fight' to Taliban post-bin LadenObama's aides were split, but he approved bin Laden hitAnalysis: A death blow to al-Qaida?Video: It doesn't get much better than thisBut White House counter-terrorism chief John Brennan said bin Laden's death was the latest in a series of US operations that have delivered "severe body blows" to al-Qaida's central network in Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past year."We're going to try to take advantage of this opportunity we have now with the death of al-Qaida's leader, bin Laden, to ensure that we're able to destroy that organization," Brennan told NBC's Today show. "We're determined to do so and we believe we can." "We believe that we have damaged the organization, degraded its capability and made it much more difficult for it to operate inside of Pakistan as well as beyond."Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry said in an MSNBC interview on Monday that US drone strikes in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas had killed as many as 17 senior al-Qaida leaders before bin Laden's death.Brennan spoke a day after world leaders and security experts urged increased vigilance against possible retaliatory strikes by al-Qaida.CIA director Leon Panetta warned on Monday that bin Laden's death would "almost certainly" prompt his Islamist supporters to attempt some sort of retaliation. But Brennan said US officials were aware of no specific threat, nearly 48 hours after bin Laden's death."But what we're doing is, we're taking all those prudent measures that we need to whenever there's an incident of significance like this," Brennan said in a separate interview on ABC's "Good Morning America.""Right now, I think we feel pretty confident that we are at the right posture."
US will aim to 'destroy' al-Qaida post-bin Laden
Obama's counter-terrorism chief: Bin Laden's death was latest in series of US operations that delivered "severe body blows" to al-Qaida network.
RELATED:Clinton: US will 'take the fight' to Taliban post-bin LadenObama's aides were split, but he approved bin Laden hitAnalysis: A death blow to al-Qaida?Video: It doesn't get much better than thisBut White House counter-terrorism chief John Brennan said bin Laden's death was the latest in a series of US operations that have delivered "severe body blows" to al-Qaida's central network in Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past year."We're going to try to take advantage of this opportunity we have now with the death of al-Qaida's leader, bin Laden, to ensure that we're able to destroy that organization," Brennan told NBC's Today show. "We're determined to do so and we believe we can." "We believe that we have damaged the organization, degraded its capability and made it much more difficult for it to operate inside of Pakistan as well as beyond."Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry said in an MSNBC interview on Monday that US drone strikes in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas had killed as many as 17 senior al-Qaida leaders before bin Laden's death.Brennan spoke a day after world leaders and security experts urged increased vigilance against possible retaliatory strikes by al-Qaida.CIA director Leon Panetta warned on Monday that bin Laden's death would "almost certainly" prompt his Islamist supporters to attempt some sort of retaliation. But Brennan said US officials were aware of no specific threat, nearly 48 hours after bin Laden's death."But what we're doing is, we're taking all those prudent measures that we need to whenever there's an incident of significance like this," Brennan said in a separate interview on ABC's "Good Morning America.""Right now, I think we feel pretty confident that we are at the right posture."