Egypt's MB wants US to leave region

US forces in Helmand province in southwestern Afghanistan

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/177816.html

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has said the United States has no more reason to stay in Iraq and Afghanistan after the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin-Laden.

"With bin Laden's death, one of the reasons for which violence has been practiced in the world has been removed," Essam al-Erian, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's governing body, told Reuters.

"It is time for Obama to pull out of Afghanistan and Iraq and end the occupation of US and Western forces around the world that have for so long harmed Muslim countries," he said.

Bin Laden was killed in a fire-fight with American troops in the town of Abbottabad in northeast of Islamabad on Sunday, US President Barack Obama announced on Monday.

During the Sunday US operation that killed bin Laden, three other men -- including a son of the al-Qaeda leader -- and a woman were also killed.

Al-Erian envisioned a violent reaction to bin-Laden's killing across the world where al-Qaeda has headquarters.

"Afghanistan, Pakistan, Morocco and Algeria might react violently as the influence of al-Qaeda is pervasive there."

This is while analysts and military experts believe that the United States had delayed the killing of bin Laden to continue the presence of US-led forces in war-torn Afghanistan.

The announcement of bin Laden's death comes almost ten years after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Despite an earlier pledge by Obama for a major drawdown of troops from the war-ravaged country by July 2011, American officials recently announced that US soldiers would remain in Afghanistan for at least another four years.

The number of US-led forces in Afghanistan stands at 150,000 while more than 47,000 American soldiers are being stationed inside Iraq.