The search for Osama bin Laden is over, but many questions remain to be answered.

A U.S. military attack that claimed the life of Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted terrorist, came with sudden swiftness early Sunday morning. Hours later, on Sunday evening, the news of bin Laden's death hit the world's airwaves with similar speed.

Nearly 10 years after the 9/11 attacks on New York City and Washington, the search for bin Laden is over. He is dead, killed in a fire fight with U.S. Navy Seals during a precision commando raid at a luxury compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, located an hour from the nation's capital in Islamabad.

It was no dirty, damp and dark cave in which bin Laden was hiding. Instead, he was living in the lap of luxury surrounded by family members and guards. The U.S. found him after a months-long search that involved identifying a courier who worked for the al-Qaida leader and tracing him to this most unlikely of hideouts.

The Abbottabad compound, of course, raises the question of who else knew where bin Laden was hiding, specifically whether officials in the Pakistani government who professed to be helping the U.S. find bin Laden were really in bed with the terrorist.

This will be a touchy subject for diplomats representing the two nations to hash out. Suffice it to say, the U.S. had good reason for not giving Pakistan's leaders any advance warning of the military raid conducted on their soil.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is rightly celebrating the death of bin Laden, the revered leader of a terrorist group that declared war on the U.S. 15 years ago and carried out the 9/11 attacks that killed more than 3,000 people in September 2001.

Since that awful day, killing or capturing bin Laden has been one of the top priorities of the U.S. government. Finally, after a long, difficult and frustrating search, the U.S. got its man.

Although this news story had exploded into international headlines, there is much that remains to be disclosed about this lightning-swift attack, including details of the events on the ground and the intelligence the U.S. recovered from bin Laden's lair. U.S. officials also need to release a photograph of the body to end all doubt as to his fate.

One of the most stunning aspects of the story is bin Laden's burial at sea, performed strictly in according to the tenets of the Muslim religion. Apparently, the U.S. wanted to deny bin Laden an honored burial on land to prevent him from being elevated to a martyr's status.

But it's hard to imagine that his followers will be dissuaded from their hero worship by the lack of a burial site. They already are promising to seek vengeance.

But they've been seeking to kill innocents for years now. What can they do that they haven't tried to do hundreds of times before?

The larger question is what lasting importance will be attached to the death of bin Laden. Certainly, he was the leader of al-Qaida. At the same time, al-Qaida is so diffuse an organization and bin Laden's leadership role so tenuous that it remains to be seen if his followers will, in any way, be dispirited by his death.

Whatever happens, however, bin Laden's death is good news for those seeking a measure of justice for the 9/11 victims as well as their families and friends. Although bin Laden claimed the status of a political leader and military tactician, he was little more than a bloodthirsty killer who chose the most innocent of victims to attack. He earned his bloody end a thousand times over, and people all over the world can feel a measure of relief and satisfaction that bin Laden got what he deserved.