Sunday, December 15, 2013
More than
two and a half years after US commandos shot dead Al-Qaeda figurehead
Osama bin Laden, the global extremist network is more dangerous than
ever, American experts and counterterrorism officials warned this week.
Thanks notably to a flood of recruits flowing to join Al-Qaeda-linked
jihadist forces fighting in Syria's civil war, the group is back on its
feet, and securing territory from which it could once more threaten
Europe and the United States.
Osama's former lieutenants in Al-Qaeda's historic leadership have
been killed by US Special Forces or in drone strikes, or else are
isolated and on the run in the tribal badlands on the Afghan-Pakistan
border.
But armed groups in Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and West Africa have
flocked to his banner and Al-Qaeda is rebuilding its influence and
recruiting fighters across the region.