The military wing of Fatah has denounced the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden as treacherous, a catastrophe and the work of heretics.

In a statement obtained by research institute Palestinian Media Watch, Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades said that if bin Laden had died it was as a martyr on "the path of victory".

They said: "The military wings of the Jihad fighters in Palestine and outside of it, who have in the past lost many of their commanders and their men, will not stop. This has only strengthened their determination, their resolve."

They also vowed revenge on "the American and Israeli occupier" for bin Laden's death.

They said: "The [Islamic] nation which produced leaders who changed the course of history through their Jihad and their endurance, is a nation that is capable of supplying an abundance of new blood into the arteries of the resistance"

The condemnation follows similar statements by several extremist groups, including Hamas, although a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, dominated by the Fatah movement, said yesterday that "getting rid of bin Laden [was] good for the cause of peace worldwide."