An Al-Qaeda Fadeout? Not So Fast!
"I do worry about the rebirth of AQ [al-Qaeda] in Afghanistan because of what their target list will be -- us."
"It is why we need to worry about the resurgence of the Taliban, because, just like before, the Taliban will give al-Qaeda a safe haven."
Michael Morell, (former) deputy director, Central Intelligence Agency
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"A lot of that [undetected facilities] is because, you know, it's a very remote part of Kandahar."
"Al-Qaeda has attempted to rebuild its support networks and planning capabilities with the intention of reconstituting its strike capabilities against the U.S. homeland and Western interests."
"While many jihadists still view al-Qaeda as the moral foundation for global jihad, they view Daesh [Islamic State] as its decisive arm of action."
"If al-Qaeda is Windows 1.0, then Daesh is Windows 7.0."
General John Campbell, U.S. Commander, Afghanistan
"In the second half of 2015, the overall security situation in Afghanistan deteriorated, with an increase in effective insurgent attacks and higher [the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces] and Taliban casualties."
Pentagon report
The news for 2016 in a nutshell; al-Qaeda is resurgent, piggy-backing on the Afghan Taliban which gave it haven before 2001, enabling Osama bin Laden to orchestrate his signature attack on the World Trade Towers in New York and on the Pentagon, and as it returns, the strength of the fearsome Sunni brand of jihad has been augmented and transcended into critical proportions by the threat represented by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The threat goes much beyond their jihadi credentials and the barbaric atrocities that Islamic State has committed; it rises in the prospect and the demonstrated reality of inflating its numbers through inspiring recruits to their very particular type of vicious challenge to the opposing West, with other Sunni terrorist groups clamouring to be recognized as affiliates of ISIL, where previously they swore allegiance to the outreach of al-Qaeda.
With the belated realization by U.S. intelligence of a phenomena they had managed to somehow overlook, of the spread of al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan where once the U.S.-led invasion forced them out of commission and into hiding, they are now present in numbers and fully operational. The resilience of the Taliban speaks to the enduring determination of an ideology that refuses to fade, of the imposition of Islamist tentacles and intolerance, flaunting their war cries of conquest.
The growing presence and strength has propelled the U.S. to greater measures in aid of the Afghan government and military to respond to the upsurge in violent Taliban attacks, and that of the Haqqani network, and a newly emerged offshoot of ISIL. Pakistani military operations that encourage fighters to cross the border into Afghanistan remain an acknowledged force to be reckoned with, even as the U.S. continues to view Pakistan as a partner in the war on terror.
U.S. air strikes attacking al-Qaeda training camps in southern Afghanistan backing Afghan commandos created a successful assault against the Taliban that ground into dust two training areas featuring an elaboration of tunnels and fortifications which hundreds of Taliban fighters fought to the death to defend. But even as two of the training camps of al-Qaeda were destroyed others remain.
Their presence more suspected than known, just as the two camps which were successfully assaulted had been in operation for a year and a half, undetected. When the October raid took place a new al-Qaeda offshoot had been understood to exist: al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS). The new offshoot based in Pakistan, focused on Pakistan's nemesis, India.
In the reality of security erosion on a wide scale in much of Afghanistan, it is understood that the situation led to the creation of the new training camps in the confidence their presence would remain undetected.
According to General Campbell, the Pakistani-based Haqqani network is a vital "facilitator" in Afghanistan for al-Qaeda with the groups sharing a common goal of "expelling coalition forces, overthrowing the Afghan government, and re-establishing an extremist state."
Labels: Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, Islamic State, Pakistan, Taliban
posted by Pieface @ Friday, January 08, 2016
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