Experts warn global terror is not over

TEL AVIV, Israel, May 3 (UPI) -- Osama bin Laden's demise doesn't mean an end to terror as groups worldwide will be motivated to carry out attacks, Israeli terror experts cautioned.

Militants will attempt to target U.S. embassies worldwide as well as American citizens and symbols, Boaz Ganor head of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya told Ynetnews.com Tuesday.

The next step will likely be radical Islamists recruited by terror groups trying to carry out attacks in the Western world, similar to the bombing in London in 2005, he warned.

Groups affiliated with al-Qaida may be motivated to carry out attacks against U.S. and other Western targets in the Middle East and Africa, Ganor said.

In the long term al-Qaida may plan an attack of a similar scale to Sept. 11, 2001 in the United States, he said.

"Such an attack, should it take place, will likely be carried out in the longer term given the need to get organized and prepare such a complex operation," Ganor told Ynetnews.

Global terror hasn't been eliminated with bin Laden's death, Professor Eyal Zisser a terror expert at Tel Aviv University told the Web site.

"Bin Laden was the man who established the terror organization, the brains behind it and the man who financed its activity and, in this respect, this is a serious blow to the organization. However this does not mark the elimination of global terror," Zisser warned.

"The operation does not constitute the elimination of global terror, because to my regret there are enough fanatics out there with deep hatred for the West, who will continue bin Laden's path," Professor Efraim Inbar head of the Bar Ilan University Begin-Sadat Center told the site.

"We can assume he [bin Laden] will turn into a martyr now and continue to attract disturbed people in the Muslim world who are motivated by frustration and believe in the notion of murdering others," he said.