On May Day, US President Barack Obama took the world by surprise when he announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed.

Without doubt, the death of the Al-Qaida leader is a great achievement in the global fight against terrorism. The spontaneous celebrations that broke out across the US show how eagerly the Americans were waiting to see this day.

History's most expansive, expensive and exasperating manhunt has finally ended, but the most expensive war against terrorism still has a long way to go.

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Interceptive actions may not be as effective as expected against the Al-Qaida, because it is not a centralized organization with one command center. Almost each of its unknown number of branches has its own complete operating system, and can act independently. Bin Laden's death is definitely a heavy psychological blow to them, but it has not caused them any actual damage.

Besides, for the greater part of the last decade, bin Laden had been in "exile" without access to any modern telecommunication gadget. It was his assistants that organized the attacks. He was, in fact, their "spiritual" leader rather than their strategic or tactical leader, even though he built Al-Qaida three decades ago.

There isn't a terrorist that exercises as much influence as bin Laden. But several new-generation leaders like Ayman al-Zawahiri and Anwar al-Awlaki have organized attacks without his participation. In some sense, global terrorists do not need a "spiritual" leader any more. Hence, killing one will not prevent further terrorist attacks.

Bin Laden's death can have two totally different effects. On one hand, it will deal a heavy blow to terrorists. On the other, it can arouse deeper hatred among terrorists and prompt them to strike more fiercely at Western targets to avenge his death.

According to documents released by WikiLeaks a few days ago, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, claimed that Al-Qaida had hidden a nuclear bomb in Europe that was tied to bin Laden's fate. In all probability, the threat is a hoax but countries have to be prepared for the worst, because we cannot afford to lose more lives to terrorists.

The key to fighting terrorism is not to kill one or two bin Ladens, but to eradicate poverty, which pushes youths toward terrorism. Power politics and racial discrimination will only push more poor youths in that direction.

North Africa and the Middle East have huge numbers of young people who face a bleak economic future. These youths need jobs to steer them away from trouble and give them a stable life.

According to the International Labour Organization, the unemployment rate in Middle East countries from 1999 to 2009 remained around 9 to 10 percent. Ahmed Mohammed Luqman, director-general of Arab Labour Organization, estimates that the region needs to create about 5.5 million jobs every year to tackle unemployment. But only 3 million jobs were created in the region in the past two years.

Therefore, if we term Osama bin Laden's killing as the US' biggest victory against terrorism, it will remain more of a symbol than material success.

The author is a professor at the People's Liberation Army National Defense University. These are excerpts from his interview to China Central Television.

(China Daily 05/04/2011 page9)