Haveeru : New breed of Al-Qaeda flourishes in 9/11's birthplace

New breed of Al-Qaeda flourishes in 9/11's birthplace

September 6, 2006

A new generation of Islamic militants is using the region where Osama bin Laden masterminded September 11 to plan fresh attacks on the West, officials and analysts say.

The alleged plot to blow up US-bound airliners from Britain and the July 7, 2005 suicide bombings of London's transport network have both been linked by officials to the Al-Qaeda network in Pakistan.

In Afghanistan, a wave of violence including suicide bombers from the hardline Taliban regime that once sheltered bin Laden is killing US and NATO soldiers along with scores of civilians.

Almost five years of hunting in the barren mountains that divide the two Islamic republics has wiped out many of his former henchmen but thrown up no hint of the Saudi terror kingpin -- while new recruits continue to emerge.

"We have busted gangs plotting terror schemes and most of them have new recruits. These new volunteers are more desperate and dangerous than we have seen previously," a top Pakistani security official told AFP.

"The ouster of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan did destabilise the Al-Qaeda network but Iraq and now Lebanon are adding to their ranks and violence," another official added on condition of anonymity.

Washington's "war on terror" has had far-reaching effects on politics and security in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

After abandoning Pakistan's six-year support for the Taliban in the wake of 9/11, President Pervez Musharraf cracked down on militant groups that flourished here during the US-backed anti-Soviet "jihad" in Afghanistan and the insurgency in Indian-held Kashmir.

Pakistan has launched offensives against hundreds of Arab Al-Qaeda veterans who fled into Pakistan's lawless tribal areas following Bin Laden's last stand at Tora Bora in Afghanistan in late 2001.

Security forces here have also captured some of Al-Qaeda's biggest names, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who said the attacks on New York and Washington were his brainchild.

"Anyone (Al-Qaeda) who has ventured into Pakistan has been arrested. We have arrested more than 600 Al-Qaeda men," Pakistani military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said.

Yet Pakistan remains a focal point for the network.

Two of the young British Muslims who blew themselves up in the 7/7 attacks on London had contact with Al-Qaeda figures in Pakistan, according to the British government, and studied at Islamic madrassas.

Meanwhile Pakistan said in August it had arrested dual British-Pakistani national Rashid Rauf -- a "key man" in the alleged airliner bombing conspiracy -- along with six other suspects and his father.

Pakistan said Rashid Rauf had links with "Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan" and that a top Middle Eastern Al-Qaeda figure involved in the plot was based in Afghanistan's turbulent eastern province of Kunar.

The furious response to this claim from Afghan President Hamid Karzai's fragile US-backed government highlights a worrying crevasse in the war against terrorism.
His administration has repeatedly blamed Islamabad for failing to help it tackle an insurgency by Taliban and foreign Al-Qaeda fighters along the Pakistani border that is at its bloodiest since 2001.

Much of the violence targets NATO and US-led troops, who admit that Bin Laden's group still has a presence.

"We are clear that Al-Qaeda operates in the region," General John Abizaid, the head of the US Central Command that covers parts of Africa and the Middle East, told reporters recently.

"We are clear that Al-Qaeda operates in Iraq, or clear that they operate in Egypt or clear that they are capable of conducting attacks worldwide but I'm also clear that they are under a lot of pressure."

Nevertheless the Pakistani and Afghan leaders find themselves in increasingly precarious positions half a decade after the fall of the Taliban.

The West rewarded Musharraf for his cooperation with billions of dollars in aid and a relaxation of calls for democracy after he seized power in a military coup in 1999.
But there has also been payback from disaffected militants, now in league with Al-Qaeda, who have tried to kill him at least three times. Opposition from Islamic political parties also causes him problems.

Karzai, who won a 2004 presidential election, is now coming under increasing criticism in the United States and among diplomats for failing to tackle the poor security as well as Afghanistan's rampant graft and poverty.

The fixation on the "war on terror" at the expense of political and social reform has played into Al-Qaeda's hands by increasing extremism in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, an analyst said.

"This single-minded emphasis on Al-Qaeda was short-sighted," said Samina Ahmed, South Asia Project Director for the International Crisis Group. "They need to look at transparency, at the rule of law, participation."

The confrontation with militant Islam is still going strong, political analyst and a former professor of political science Hassan Askari told AFP.

"Five years down the line the international situation has become more uncertain and the nature of threat has come decentralised, fragmented but just as lethal in nature," he said.