'Qaeda clobbered, but still a mortal threat'

Nine years after 3,000 people died in the 9/11 attacks, Al-Qaeda, the group behind the carnage, has taken many hits but remains a formidable threat, operating from Pakistan and through support groups, experts and officials say.

Nine years after 3,000 people died in the 9/11 attacks, Al-Qaeda, the group behind the carnage, has taken many hits but remains a formidable threat, operating from Pakistan and through support groups, experts and officials say.

HT Image

The network created by Osama bin Laden in 1988 no longer seems able to carry out complex attacks such as those that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon, but their masterminds are alive and at large.

This fact is being celebrated as a clear victory by the terror group and its supporters. "Counterterrorism efforts against Al-Qaeda have put the organization in one of its most difficult positions since... late 2001," Dennis Blair said early this year when he was Director of National Intelligence, a US cabinet-level official.

"However, while these efforts have slowed the pace of anti-US planning and hindered progress on new external operations, they have not been sufficient to stop them." Blair added: "Until counterterrorism pressure on Al-Qaeda places of refuge, key lieutenants and operative cadres outpaces the group's ability to recover, Al-Qaeda will retain its capability to mount an attack."

"The network is focused on its own survival, which is closely linked with the future of its jihadist allies in Pakistan," said Jean-Pierre Filiu, professor at Sciences Po, an elite school in Paris, and author of "Les Neuf vies d'Al-Qaïda" (The Nine Lives of Al-Qaeda). "Al Qaeda-Central has become more and more Pakistani and is practically absent from Afghanistan," said Filiu.