BEIRUT: Lebanese militant Muslim preacher Omar Bakri warned Wednesday of retaliation by Al-Qaeda in response to the killing of its leader, Osama bin Laden, on a scale “worthy of this martyr.”

The grand operation, “bin Laden’s incursion,” would strike at the heart of the Western world, the sheikh told The Daily Star in a telephone interview.

“Our information confirms that the response will be named ‘bin Laden’s incursion.’ Usually Al-Qaeda responds to the death of one of its leaders with an operation named after him … an operation that would be worthy of this martyr,” Bakri said, adding that such a “cold-blooded assassination” would not go unpunished.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced Monday that bin Laden had been killed Sunday in Pakistan and Pentagon officials said he had been buried at sea. Reports also claim he had been unarmed during the operation.

Bakri, who denies links with Al-Qaeda but once praised the Sept. 11 attacks as “magnificent,” said the expected retaliation would be carried out in countries such as the United States, France and Britain, while ruling out any attacks in Arab countries.

“I doubt that [anything will happen in Arab countries] because they had the chance to attack foreign embassies [but they didn’t] … Bin Laden urged his followers not to carry out such attacks so that Arab leaders would not take fighting terrorism as an excuse to attack revolutionaries,” Bakri said.

For Bakri, the fact that bin Laden was unarmed during the attack mean it is considered an assassination and a violation of the sanctity of Muslims.

“This is considered a cold-blooded murder of a helpless man, especially [given] that he was killed in the presence of his wife and children in bed,” Bakri said, adding that bin Laden has now been named “the martyr of the sea and land because he was killed on land and thrown in the sea.”

“The move by American forces to transport him from land to sea and bury him underwater is one of the manifestations of U.S. hegemony, and an offense to Muslims and a declaration of war against God, his profit and Muslims,” Bakri said.

Only under special circumstance are Muslims allowed to be buried at sea, Bakri said, conditions which the American forces did not meet.

“Islam allows burying the body of a Muslim at sea. But only on condition there is some obstacle preventing the burial taking place on land,” he said, adding that “underwater burial necessitates a special prayer, wrapping the body in cloth and placing heavy rocks on the corpse to ensure the body reaches the bottom of the sea.”

The assassination of bin Laden, the reports that he had been buried at sea and the broadcasting of Americans “gloating” over the death of the Al-Qaeda leader would spur Al-Qaeda followers and bin Laden loyalists into action, the Muslim preacher said.

“[This] is added to the list of incentives on which Al-Qaeda and other mujahedeen movements base their actions to wage war against Western countries,” Bakri said.

Bakri is a controversial preacher with joint Lebanese-Syrian nationality. He spent 20 years preaching in Britain following involvement with Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood and Hizb Ut-Tahrir in Lebanon.

He shot to notoriety after the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S., praising the perpetrators as the “magnificent 19.” He returned to Lebanon after being barred from travelling to the U.K.

Bakri has two wives – one British and one Lebanese – and eight children.