Killing may have little impact on network

WASHINGTON / BEIJING - The killing of Osama bin Laden will deal a big psychological blow to al-Qaida but may have little practical impact on an increasingly decentralized group that has operated tactically without him for years.

Nearly a decade after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, al-Qaida has fragmented into a globally scattered network of autonomous groups in which bin Laden served as an inspirational figure from the core group's traditional Pakistan-Afghanistan base.

Counter-terrorism specialists describe a constantly mutating movement that is harder to hunt than in its turn of the century heyday because it is increasingly diffuse - a multi-ethnic, regionally dispersed and online-influenced hybrid of activists.