CAIRO -- Hundreds of Egyptians chanting for revenge marched Friday to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to protest the killing of Osama bin Laden, whose death al-Qaida finally acknowledged in a statement that offered the Muslim world congratulations "for the martyrdom of its grateful son, Osama."
The al-Qaida statement, which couldn't be independently verified, spread quickly among militant websites Friday. Dated Tuesday, the message mourns bin Laden as a hero, mocks U.S. forces for killing him off the battlefield, and encourages Pakistanis and other Muslims to rise up and continue his example of violent jihad.
"Sheikh Osama did not build an organization that will die with his death or disappear with his disappearance," the statement said, warning of revenge attacks.
In Pakistan, about 1,500 people took to the streets to protest bin Laden's killing, chanting anti-American slogans and burning the U.S. flag, according to videos posted online.
The Pakistani government, under international scrutiny for its failure to find bin Laden in a town so close to the country's capital, arrested 40 people in Abbottabad for suspected links to the terrorist leader.
Bin Laden leaves a mixed legacy in the Arab world, where few mourned his death publicly, even if many privately agreed with the general al-Qaida message - if not the murderous tactics - against American and other Western involvement in the region.
To a large extent, the Arab Spring uprisings have sidelined al-Qaida, proving that peaceful protests can be more effective than bombings to force changes from repressive regimes.
The al-Qaida statement on bin Laden's death said that a message he'd recorded the week before he was killed would be broadcast soon. The message, as it was described in the statement, links the Arab uprisings to bin Laden's own version of jihad.
"The sheikh refused to leave this world before sharing with his Muslim nation the happiness of its revolutions in the face of injustice and tyrants," the statement said.
Protesters across the Arab world have stressed that their revolts aren't Islamist in nature but aimed at universal goals of elected rulers, economic improvements, an end to corruption and greater freedom of speech.
In Egypt, the birthplace of bin Laden's presumed successor, al-Qaida commander Ayman al-Zawahri, about 400 members of the ultraconservative Salafi branch of Islam prayed for bin Laden at a mosque they'd seized last month from more moderate leadership.
Men poured out of the mosque after Friday prayers, railing loudly against "despicable" President Barack Obama and vowing to avenge the death of "the martyred hero," bin Laden. They marched toward the U.S. Embassy, but columns of Egyptian security forces kept them back from the premises.
