Close on the heels of the Barack Obama administration approving reconciliation efforts with the moderate elements of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the United States has categorically ruled out any similar settlement with the al Qaeda. "We have no interest in any kind of reconciliation or any rapprochement by anyone with al Qaeda," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. "Only the Taliban, we never said al Qaeda," she said.
The Al Qaeda network is not located in Afghanistan, but clearly headquartered in Pakistan, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen told Congress Thursday, and warned that if the Taliban takes over Afghanistan again, it would mean the return of al Qaeda to Afghanistan to plan and plot attacks against the US reminiscent of 9/11.
Pakistan and China have submitted a joint bid at the UN Security Council to designate the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and its suicide wing - Majeed Brigade - as a terrorist entity under the Council's 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee.
Al Qaeda and its former protectors, the Taliban, have virtually taken over parts of Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, especially in Waziristan Province.
Zawahri's long balcony visits gave the CIA an opportunity for a clear missile shot that could avoid collateral damage.
Al Qaeda's centre of gravity is Pakistan, not Afghanistan, a former top official of the United States Armed forces has told lawmakers.
After the killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, the United States has pressured Pakistan 'to do more' to nab Al Qaeda activists and key Taliban leaders including Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omer. It is suspected that Omer is hiding in Quetta city of Balochistan. Responding to US's pressure, Pakistan has speeded up its efforts and is tracking Al Qaeda terrorists all across the country.
Al Qaeda claims that Pakistan's civilian and military leadership is trying to divert the public attention from the 'lost' war in Afghanistan by dwelling on the assassination attempt on activist Malala Yousufzai. Tahir Ali reports from Islamabad.
The Taliban and the Al Qaeda seem to have quietly expanded their recruiting base from South and Central Asia to European nations like Germany, United Kingdom and France and even to the United States, with many of the new recruits traveling to Pakistan and Afghanistan for terror training. The Washington Post, in a major article on Monday, said the new target countries are now struggling to stop their nationals from being recruited by the Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Warning that the Al Qaeda wants a nuclear weapon not to build a stockpile but to use it, a senior US official has said that the terror group will use only a handful number of operatives to carry out the attack, just as they did during the 9/11 strikes. An Al-Qaeda nuclear attack would be in the planning stages at the same time as several other plots, and only the most senior leadership of the terrorist outfit will know which plot will be approved.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said at a press briefing that 'within the last year or so, we have seen more defined training capabilities of Al Qaeda in western Pakistan, along with Taliban safe havens there.'
The Biden administration is quietly pressing Pakistan to cooperate on combating dreaded terrorist groups such as the ISIS-K and Al Qaeda following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, according to a set of leaked documents and diplomatic cables to a prominent US media outlet.
Terrorist outfit Al Qaeda is training a 12-member team of westerners in Pakistan for a special mission including plotting attacks on return to their home countries, a media report has said.
Al Qaeda and the Taliban are planning suicide and rocket attacks on the embassies, consulates, NGOs, firms and citizens of the US and UK in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.
"We need to go much further in realising the well established objective of degrading the ability of the Taliban to fight while simultaneously denying safe-havens, finances and armament," Indian Ambassador to UN Nirupam Sen told the Security Council on Tuesday.
A UN Security Council report states that The Resistance Front (TRF) claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam terror attack and published a photograph of the attack site. The report also cites assertions that the attack could not have happened without the support of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT).
A study has pointed out that the Al Qaeda seeks to employ white men with Western nationalities to successfully strike in the heart of the West. Amir Mir reports from Islamabad
The United States said on Monday that it is aware of the fact that the Taliban and Al Qaeda would continue targeting Washington and its allies and stressed for a unified approach to deal with such activities.
Stung by a stunning leak of classified records indicating links between the Inter State Intelligence and the Taliban-Al Qaeda network, the White House came out in defence of Pakistan, insisting that the US-Pak alliance has led to significant blows against the Al Qaeda leadership since 2009.
Political turmoil and a spate of attacks by Taliban are forcing Pakistan President Musharraf to scale back his government's pursuit of al Qaeda, US intelligence officials say.
Yasin was also responsible for the 2009 attack on a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.
Umer Farooq, believed to be in charge of Al Qaeda's operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan, in a US drone attack in in the Khar Tangi area of Datta Khel district of Pakistan's troubled North Waziristan region, a day after the chief of the terror group's global operations was also killed in a Pakistani military operation.
A top Obama aide on Sunday said the Al Qaeda is based in Pakistan and that the United States would 'not rush' in finalising the new strategy on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
These questions will need careful examination before one can come to a definitive conclusion on the implications of this message. But so many unanswered questions should not make us underestimate the importance of strengthened security in response to it.
"I think the most significant thing in the recent situation is the threat has moved into Pakistan proper to threaten the very existence of the (state). Pakistan has now recognised that this is an existential threat to their very survival," director of US national intelligence Admiral Michael McConnell said.
Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayiba is acting in a more Al Qaeda-like manner after being 'infected' by the ideas of Osama bin Laden's terror network and poses the highest risk to the United States, according to a top American counter-terrorism expert.
The Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent says a series of drone attacks have killed nearly 50 of its members, including deputy head Ustad Ahmad Farooq and Qari Imran, the group's central council member and in charge of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
Predicting the "defeat" of Pakistani military in its fight against the Taliban in North West Frontier Province, a top Al-Qaeda commander on Monday warned that if his group takes over Islamabad's nuclear weapons, it will "use them" against the United States.
Two suspected operatives of Al Qaeda have been arrested in New Delhi and Odisha and Delhi Police on Wednesday claimed to have busted a module of the terror group's Indian sub-continent wing operating out of the country.
A close aide of slain Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was among six militants killed in a United States drone attack in Pakistan's lawless tribal region 10 days ago, media reported on Tuesday.
Al-Qaeda chief's daughters released for ex-Pakistan Army chief's son, claimed a media report.
Al-Qaeda and other terror groups like the Taliban and their affiliates are planning to strike against American facilities and its nationals in South and Central Asia, the United States said on Saturday.
Rashid Rauf, the terror mastermind believed to be behind the 2006 trans-Atlantic plane bombing plot, and another top al Qaeda operative were among five militants killed in a United States missile attack on Saturday which hit the house of a prominent Taliban commander in Pakistan's troubled north-west.Rashid Rauf, a British-Pakistani citizen, was one of two of the suspected ringleaders of the al Qaeda London Airline plot to destroy the aircraft en route to the United States.
"Musharraf has got a situation at home where there is a certain amount of sympathy in some places for, if not Al Qaeda, then certainly for the people who are more inclined to Islam."
Nearly 200 fighters at an Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent terror training camp in the Af-Pak border region were killed in a recent attack by the US and Afghan commandos.
In an alarming development, Al Qaeda has established a new branch to wage jihad in India, revive its caliphate and impose sharia in the Indian sub-continent.
The CIA director described Pakistan's role in the war on terror, saying "The United States has not had a better partner in the war on terrorism than the Pakistanis. The turmoil of the past few weeks has only deepened that cooperation," he said, adding the two countries now had 'even more clearly mutual and common interests'.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda's second most powerful leader after Osama Bin Laden, might be critically wounded and possibly dead, according to a media report.The CBS News reported that it had obtained a copy of an intercepted letter, which urgently requests a doctor to treat al-Zawahiri. The Al Qaeda leaders are believed to be hiding somewhere in Pakistan's tribal areas.
Al Qaeda and a North Waziristan-based terror group 'Brigade 313' have reportedly prepared a plan to launch an attack on the 19th Commonwealth Games, which are due to be held in New Delhi from October 3 to October 14.
Now that it has been revealed that Osama was hiding in Pakistan, the presence of other key Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives in that nation doesn't seem such a far-fetched possibility
