Ten years after bin Laden’s death, this is how al-Qaeda continues its fight against the West

The Pearl Hotel in Peshawar has for years been the center of spy activity of all kinds, shapes and sizes. The Pakistani city located on the edge of the Khiber Pass, a mythical passage in the Hindu Kush mountain range, from the West to ancient India via Afghanistan, has always been a hotbed of CIA, KGB, MI6, Mossad, Pakistani ISI, Taliban, Saudis, ISIS and Al Qaeda agents. From this alphabet soup, 20 years ago, I met there in the dining room one of those characters who, after a long conversation, told me where I was going to find an “authorized voice” that he could speak on behalf of the terrorists of the terrorist network organized by Osama bin Laden. “I’ll let them know you’re going,” he told me. It could be a trap. But at that time, they were still kidnapping and selling journalists. The translator turned pale, but agreed to accompany me. He was reportedly an “informal spokesperson” who frequently addressed the press on behalf of Al Qaeda.

It was above a store in one of those markets that occupy blocks and blocks. When we entered there were several men drinking sweet tea with one hand and the other move the tasbih, the Muslim rosary. No one was surprised to see a Westerner enter. A boy approached in his typical Pashtun round cap and he felt us for arms. He pointed to a staircase. When we go up we meet another group of men, but instead of tea and tisbah, they had their Kalashnikovs on hand. One of them stood up and invited us to sit on the huge carpet finely drawn with reds extracted from the pomegranate. He said he only had three minutes. That he wasn’t sure he was there. And he repeated over and over in Dari, the Persian dialect spoken by Afghans: “Al Qaeda is more alive than ever. Osama continues to manage the network. We are here to stay until we reclaim the land from the Muslims “.

Twenty years have passed since that meeting and 10 years since the elimination of Bin Laden, but the threat of this jihadist “spokesperson” persists. The terrorist network created in these mountains of the Hindu Kush, a few kilometers from Peshawar, Although weakened, it is operational and still has the capacity to commit attacks across the world..

The “war on terror” launched by the United States after the September 11 attacks is about to enter a new phase. President Joe Biden ordered an end to the longest war in his country’s history and the withdrawal of all troops from Afghanistan before the 20th anniversary of September 11. But al Qaeda claims its war with the United States is far from over. In an interview with the CNN carried out by intermediaries, a terrorist network official said that “The war will continue on all other fronts unless US forces are driven from the rest of the Islamic world.”

Counterterrorism specialist Paul Cruickshank, who publishes the daily Sentinel CTC of the West Point Military Academy, reviewed tapes of Al Qaeda’s responses and told the News Network that they could “be encouraged by the decision of the Biden administration to withdraw its troops, but also may be looking to distract from the many recent losses“.

This weekend marks the tenth anniversary of the death of Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers of New York and the Pentagon. He was trapped by US special operations forces, Team Seal 6, inside its walled compound in the Pakistani military college town of Abbottabad. Even then, the network was very weak and the stronger groups were operating on other fronts in Africa and the Middle East. But always maintained their presence in Afghanistan and conducted joint operations with the Taliban who had already given them refuge in 2001 and who are now threatening to return to power in Kabul. “Thanks to the Afghans for the protection of their comrades in arms, many of these jihadist fronts have been operating successfully in different parts of the Islamic world for a long time. But Afghan land was very special to us, ”said the terrorist questioned. A clear sign that the promise made by the Taliban in the long negotiation with representatives in Washington it’s very difficult to complete and Afghanistan could once again be a haven for jihadists around the world.

A threat relativized from Washington. Secretary of State Antony Blinken put it this way on ABC’s “This Week” earlier this month: “We went to Afghanistan 20 years ago, and we went there because we were. attacked on September 11, we went to confront those who had attacked us, and ensure that Afghanistan is never again a safe haven for terrorism directed against the United States or one of our allies and partners. And we achieved the objectives we set for ourselves ”. Peter Bergen, terrorism expert and author of several books on Bin Laden, believes that Al Qaeda is working on an “Islamic brotherhood” with both the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani TTP Taliban. “This confirms what the UN said that “ Taliban consult regularly ” Al-Qaeda during their negotiations with the United States, while ensuring that they honor their historic ties to the terrorist group. “The TTP demonstrated the good training it received from al-Qaeda men when last week he took a hotel in the city of Quetta and held the Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan hostage for a few hours.

The current leader of al-Qaeda, the non-charismatic Egyptian doctor Ayman al Zawahiri, live an almost virtual existence and you only hear about him in rare propaganda releases. However, the group continues to see itself as an example for other jihadists. Al Qaeda franchises operate in Yemen, Syria, Somalia and North Africa. Following the Libyan civil war that broke out with the fall of Gaddafi, several militant Islamist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda were able to expand their operations in the region. The 2012 attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, which killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens, was carried out by various jihadist groups such as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Ansar al-Sharia and other groups affiliated with the terrorist network. In Indonesia, from 2000 to 2009, the jihadist group Jemaah Islamiyyah (JI), linked to Al-Qaeda, was the main perpetrator of the attacks. From that point on, JI and other groups identified ISIS as the Islamic State. Between January 2016 and March 2021, pro-IS groups were responsible for 13 attacks that left 68 dead and 122 injured. Since 2015, the so-called Conquest Army has been operating in Syria, which includes the Front of Al Nusra, affiliated with Al Qaeda and another Salafist coalition known as the Ahrar al Sham, another affiliate of the network, and enjoy the open support of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. In the Yemen war, they act under the name of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. In Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, its presence is increasingly visible, and in Somalia, the Movement Shabab al Muyahidin, affiliated to the network since 2012, controls rural areas in the center and south of the country.

However, over the past seven years jihadist terrorism has lost much of its firepower. The total number of deaths caused by attacks by these groups worldwide down 59% from its 2014 peak. In the West, the current threat comes less from Islamist violence than from far-right terrorism, which has climbed 250% over the same period, and now accounts for 46% of attacks and 82% of deaths. Most Islamist terrorism in 2021 tends to be local: the Taliban in Afghanistan, Boko Haram in Nigeria, al-Shabab in the Horn of Africa. It’s a big departure from Al Qaeda’s glory days, when its leaders insisted the goal shouldn’t be the “near enemy” (local regimes) but “the distant enemy” (United States and the West in general). After bin Laden’s death, Al Qaeda has disintegrated into a host of militias in disparate locations with no central leadership or ideology. Its most powerful detachment, ISIS, also withdrew and sought other unstable or ungoverned countries, such as Mozambique, where it could operate. This focus on local conflicts has eroded the importance of Al Qaeda as a global organization. Muslims around the world do not identify with local causes in Mozambique or Somalia.

Even if Al-Qaeda is by no means dead. You can strike again anytime, anywhere. He never gave up his religious ideology of placing the struggle in “A tragic fate of permanent confrontation until the final judgment against the Jewish and Crusader West”.

KEEP READING: