Al Qaeda's second-in-command Atiyah Abd al-Rahman has been killed in a United States drone attack in the mountains of Pakistan's Waziristan area, American officials have said, further damaging the terror group that appears weakened since the death of Osama bin Laden in May.
In an address at a security conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in the Kazakh capital, he also underlined the need for holding accountable the sponsors, financiers and facilitators of terrorism, in remarks that came amid Pakistan's continuing support to various terror groups.
The documents seized from Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan's Abbottabad city in the May 2 raid confirm that the then al Qaeda chief was obsessive about documenting everything, and that the terrorist organisation functioned like a multinational corporate company.
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence had chalked out a "low-profile routine proxy operation" in India through the Lashkar-e-Tayiba but the plan was "hijacked" and turned into Mumbai attacks by an ex-Pakistan army major and terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri's men with Al Qaeda's blessings, according to a book written by slain journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad.
Over two months after the killing of its leader Osama bin Laden, United States' counter-terrorism officials believe that terror outfit Al Qaeda is on the brink of collapse. "US counter-terrorism officials are increasingly convinced that the killing of Osama bin Laden and the toll of seven years of CIA drone strikes have pushed Al-Qaeda to the brink of collapse," The Washington Post reported.
Al-Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zawahri said his terror network carried out the July 7 London bombings, in a statement, marking the group's first direct claim of responsibility for the attacks that killed 52 people.
United States President Barack Obama on Wednesday said that the US has succeeded in its mission in Afghanistan by "severely" crippling the Al Qaeda there and vowed to keep pressure on the terror group until that network is entirely defeated.
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.
In daring raids, US commandos have captured a fugitive al-Qaeda leader from the streets of Libya and raided the seaside villa of an al-Shabaab militant in Somalia, signalling America's determination to pursue dreaded terrorists abroad.
The US Attorney General also asked Americans to help out the government in tracking down seven men associated with the terrorist outfit.
The International Institute of Strategic Studies warned the fighters are waiting for orders to attack targets in Europe and the United States.\n\n
The US military since 2004 has used this secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda. These were authorised by a classified order that Defence Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld signed in the spring of 2004 with the approval of President Bush, the New York Times, quoting US officials, said
Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Arampora village in Awantipora area of the south Kashmir district this morning following specific intelligence about the presence of terrorists there, a police official said.
In a joint operation with police of two states, the National Investigation Agency on Monday arrested three persons suspected to be part of a group sympathising with Al Qaeda and involved in five blast cases in court premises of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka since April.
Al Qaeda on Friday confirmed the death of its chief Osama bin Laden, five days after the dreaded terrorist was killed by American commandos in Pakistan's Abbottabad town, warning that his blood would not be "wasted" and attacks against the US and it allies would continue.
Even as terrorism emanating from Yemen is a major security concern for the United States, a top Obama administration official has said Al Qaeda core in Pakistan remains an 'extraordinarily formidable and dangerous terrorist organisation' targeting America.
Israel on Friday blamed Al Qaeda for a series of bomb attacks in Egypt's Sinai peninsula that left at least 19 people and another 38 missing.
An Al Qaeda document recovered by US Navy SEALs from the Abbottabad hideout of Osama bin Laden describes the 2008 Mumbai terror attack by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorists as a "heroic Fidai" operation and the one at German Bakery in Pune as a "beautiful huge" bombing.
Al Khansaa, launched last month, aims to show women how to reconcile the contradiction of fighting jihad while maintaining family life.
In the wake of the announcement that the United States has killed Osama nin Laden, Indian intelligence agencies fear that the number of Al Qaeda-led terrorist attacks, especially on the US, will increase.
Security officials were quoted by Dawn News channel late on Monday night as saying that Al Qaeda leaders Hamza Arabi, Qasim Hamza and Musa Arabi were among those killed in the attack on the seminary in Tanda Darpakhel, two km from Miranshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan.
"Iraq is now a rear-guard action on the part of al Qaeda," General James Conway, the head of the Marine Corps and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the paper in interview. "They've changed their strategic focus not to Afghanistan but to Pakistan, because Pakistan is the closest place where you have the nexus of terrorism and nuclear weapons."
The United States on Tuesday evacuated nearly 90 Americans from Yemen, while the Britain has withdrawn all diplomatic staff in the country amid a worldwide terror alert linked to electronic intercepts from Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, ordering a major attack since 9/11.
It was the Internet that helped the Al Qaeda to contact, recruit, train and equip Nigerian 'underwear' bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab 'within weeks' to try to blow up a United States plane on Christmas Day, a top Pentagon official has said.This reflects how the extremist groups have been increasingly using Internet as a recruitment tool, which otherwise could have taken months, if not years, to hire and train a terror suspect, said Garry Reid.
Former RAW Additional Secretary Jayadeva Ranade tells Rediff.com's Upasna Pandey that India needs to be extremely cautious and watchful of the estimated 35-40 Indians who may have joined the ISIS in Iraq and may return to the country.
Al Qaeda has increased its reach: US officials
Two Indian brothers are among four men who have been indicted by a US federal court on charges of providing material support to slain Al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki, prosecutors said.
US President Barack Obama, who made a surprise visit to Kabul and met President Hamid Karzai, has vowed to deny the Al Qaeda safe haven and reverse Taliban's momentum in Afghanistan.
Al Qaeda is trying to topple the government in nuclear powered Pakistan, the US warned on Sunday. Vice President Joe Biden said the Obama administration is trying "to make sure that terrorists do not in fact, bring down the Pakistani government, which is a nuclear power."
If viewed as a part of the Al Qaeda's radicalisation effort to produce jihadists out of discontented Muslim youth in India, the call could well have a much larger dimension, both in the near as well as long term, directly impacting on national security, says Bibhu Prasad Routray.
Al Qaeda in Yemen has claimed responsibility for the attack on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, saying it was ordered by the Islamist militant group's leadership for insults to the Prophet Mohammad, according to a video posted on YouTube.
Al Qaeda's leadership has a habit of appointing men affiliated to Kashmiri militant groups in positions of leadership, says Amir Mir
A nephew of top Al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was among 11 people arrested in Karachi Sunday.
The Taliban is ready to completely disown the Al Qaeda, and is willing to work with the United States to improve security in Afghanistan, a major report has disclosed.
"Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is an extension of Al Qaeda core coming out of Pakistan. And, in my view, it is one of the most lethal and one of the most concerning of it," John Brennan, assistant to the US President for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, told media persons at a White House briefing.
With reports of some youths from India joining the Islamic State, National Investigation Agency has sought permission of the government to register a case against the terror group as well as the banned Al Qaeda.
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.
The United States must henceforth adopt policies that treat Al Qaeda and the Taliban as a hostile state, says scholar Harold Gould.
