Ahmed Shah Massoud's assassination, 9/11 and the defeat and ejection of the Taliban suggested a break in Afghanistan's history, but the events of August 2021 and the Taliban's return shows how deeper continuities remained in place, points out T C A Raghavan, former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan.
Heaping scorn at a audio tape purported to be from Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri seeking the overthrow of his government, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Friday asserted he would "eliminate" all Al Qaeda terrorists.
MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said India's security forces are capable and equipped to protect the country's territorial integrity and sovereignty.
US-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki may rely on sermons to recruit jihadis, but his Yemen-based understudy, 24-year-old New York-raised Samir Khan, uses sarcasm and idiomatic English.
Militants from groups affiliated with once feared Al Qaeda network are abandoning their outfits to join the dreaded Islamist State that has seized swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria and been targeted in American airstrikes, according to a report.
125 Indians on watch-list, Intelligence Bureau agents tell Vicky Nanjappa/Rediff.com
Al Qaeda's centre of gravity is Pakistan, not Afghanistan, a former top official of the United States Armed forces has told lawmakers.
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.
Less than a year after the Central Intelligence Agengy warned of renewed threats from a resurgent Al Qaeda, its director Michael Hayden portrayed the terrorist movement as largely defeated in Saudi Arabia and Iraq and on the backfoot throughout the world, including in its stronghold along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
A top terrorist expert on Thursday said that the militants behind the high-profile attacks in Mumbai that killed at least 125 people followed a 'blueprint' created by the Al Qaeda."Al Qaeda set the blueprint for terrorist operations and now we see different people, different groups in different parts of the world, copying it," said George Kassimeris, an expert in conflict and terrorism.
US officials warn of attacks on 'multiple targets in multiple venues.'
"Clearly, Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan does not just comprise Arabs and Uzbeks and Tajiks. It also comprises Pakistanis; and among such Pakistanis it comprises Pathans and Punjabis and possibly Urdu speakers who constitute the Pakistani Taliban," the Daily Times said in an article.
Al Qaeda is stronger than it was earlier thanks to President Pervez Musharraf's decision in 2006 to cut a ceasefire deal with Islamic militants in the region bordering Afghanistan, US intelligence agencies said. With the Pakistani security forces staying out of the region, Al Qaeda militants were able to resettle and even re-establish some training camps in the area, says Michael Leiter, acting director of the National Counter Terrorism Center.
The officials also said the peace deal with tribal leaders in Waziristan has not proved successful in combating extremism and fighting terrorists.
The Al Qaeda and other terror groups are obsessively meticulous about accounting. Leave alone guns and explosives, they keep an account of every penny spent -- even on a bar of soap, a light bulb or spaghetti.
Al Qaeda has first secured its base in northwestern Pakistan, and is now expanding its network through affiliations and even corporate-style takeovers of smaller Islamic groups.
Bush said the US is in constant communications with the Pakistan government over the issue.
The Al Qaeda and Taliban are unclear whether it would be in their interest to work for the defeat of Obama by stepping up acts of terrorism, says B Raman.
Although the Al Qaeda is not present in large numbers, they are lethal and very determined, says Syria's Vice Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad. Seema Mustafa reports
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.
He also told interrogators that Abu Omar al Baghdadi, who is identified as the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, is a fictional role created by al Masri and that an actor is used for audio recordings of speeches posted on the Internet.
Sherpao said the breakthrough in the case came after the mobile phone sets attached to the shells were "decoded" and the contact numbers of the "culprits" were obtained and the owners traced.
The Unites States has initiated a cyber warfare to checkmate Al Qaeda's anti-American propaganda, with its experts targeting the terror network's ads on Yemeni websites to replace them with alternate versions of events.
Unable to do so in tribal tracts in Pakistan, US and Saudi intelligence agencies have successfully penetrated Al Qaeda network in the Arabian Peninsula and this helped American agencies to disrupt three major terror plots to explode passenger planes.
Al Qaeda's English online mouthpiece Inspire has returned proclaiming that it is "still publishing America's worst nightmare" despite the killing of its two top editors in a United States drone strike.
A top French Al Qaeda terrorist linked to one of the masterminds of the 9/11 attacks has been arrested by Pakistani security agencies along the country's border with Iran.
A deputy leader of Al Qaeda's branch in the Indian subcontinent, who was seen as a "rising star" in terrorist circles, died in an American drone strike in Pakistan in January that also killed an American and Italian hostage, according to a media report.
It was the first document to emerge from what the military described as a ''treasure trove'' of information when Zarqawi was killed, the newspaper reported.
Al Qaeda and its former protectors, the Taliban, have virtually taken over parts of Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, especially in Waziristan Province.
Is the mystery over Ilyas Kashmiri's death finally solved? Days after the Pakistani media reported that the HuJI chief was spotted in North Waziristan the Al Qaeda in a rare statement has declared him a martyr.
Al Qaeda will use women to carry out deadly attacks across the country, warns Intelligence Bureau.
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.
The Rand study suggested that al Qaeda cannot be defeated by force, but only by reaching out to its roots in religion and promoting convergence of Christianity and Islam.\n
Al Qaeda's claim came two days after seven blasts ripped through Mumbai's suburban train systems.\n\n
Of the '10 serious al Qaeda terrorist plots' that Bush said have been disrupted since the September 11, 2001, attacks, three involved 'al Qaeda plots to attack inside the United States'.
The New York Times said US officials were concerned that Al Qaeda has enough information to conduct strikes in New York City, Washington, DC and Newark.
Al-Qaeda chief's daughters released for ex-Pakistan Army chief's son, claimed a media report.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances