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Map of major attacks attributed to al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (also al-Qaida or al-Qa'ida or al-Qa'idah) (Arabic: القاعدة al-qāʕida, translation: The Base) is an international alliance of terrorist organizations founded in
1988[4] by Osama bin
Laden and other veteran "Afghan Arabs" after the Soviet War in Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda has attacked targets in various countries, the most notable being the September 11, 2001 attacks that occurred in New York
City and Northern Virginia. These actions were followed by the U.S. government launching a military and intelligence campaign against al-Qaeda
known as the War on Terror.
The group has been defined as "a radical Sunni Muslim umbrella organization established to recruit young Muslims into the
Afghani mujahideen and is aimed to establish Islamist states throughout the world, overthrow ‘un-Islamic regimes’, expel U.S.
soldiers and Western influence from the Gulf, and capture Jerusalem as a Muslim city," by the United States Department of Defense.[5] [6] Al-Qaeda's objectives include the end of foreign influence in Muslim countries and the creation of a new Islamic caliphate. Reported
beliefs include that a Christian-Jewish alliance is conspiring to destroy Islam,[7] and that in jihad the killing of bystanders and civilians is
Islamically justified.[8] Its management philosophy has
been described as "centralization of decision and decentralization of execution."[9] Characteristic terror techniques include use of suicide attacks and simultaneous bombings of
different targets.[10] Activities ascribed to it may
involve members of the organization, who have taken a pledge of loyalty to bin Laden, or the much more numerous "Al-Qaeda-linked"
individuals who have have undergone training in one of its camps in Afghanistan or Sudan but not taken any pledge.[11]
Al-Qaeda has been labeled a terrorist organization by the
United Nations Security Council,[12] the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization Secretary General,[13][14] the
Commission of the European Communities of the European Union,[15] the United States
Department of State,[16] the Australian Government,[17] Public Safety Canada,[18] the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs,[19] Japan's Diplomatic Bluebook,[20] South Korean Foreign Ministry,[21] the Dutch
Military Intelligence and Security Service,[22] the United Kingdom Home Office,[23] Russia,[24] Swedish Ministry
for Foreign Affairs,[25] and the Swiss Government.[26]
Due to its secrecy and structure of semi-autonomous cells, al-Qaeda's size and degree of responsibility for particular attacks
are difficult to establish.
The Name Al-Qaeda
In Arabic, al-Qaeda (القاعدة al-qā'ida) has four syllables, and is pronounced [alˈqɑː.ʕɪ.da]. However, since two of the Arabic consonants in the name (the
voiceless uvular plosive[q] and the voiced pharyngeal fricative ) are not
phones found in the English language, the closest
naturalized English pronunciation would be [ælˈkɑː.i.da]; [ælˈkaɪ.də] and [ælˈkeɪ.də] are also heard. Al-Qaeda's name can also be transliterated as al-Qaida, al-Qa'ida, el-Qaida, or al Qaeda.[27]
The name of the organization comes from the Arabic noun qā'idah, which means "foundation, basis" and can also refer to
a military "base". The initial al- is the Arabic definite article "the", hence
"the base".
Osama bin Laden explained the origin of the term in a videotaped interview with
al Jazeera journalist Tayseer Alouni in October
2001:
The name 'al-Qaeda' was established a long time ago by mere chance. The late Abu Ebeida El-Banashiri established the training
camps for our mujahedeen against Russia's terrorism. We used to call the training camp
al-Qaeda. The name stayed.[28]
What exactly al-Qaeda is, or was, is in dispute. In the BBC documentary The Power
of Nightmares writer and journalist Jason Burke maintains that the idea of
al-Qaeda as a "formal organization," is primarily an "American invention." Burke contends the name "al-Qaeda" was first brought
to the attention of the public in the 2001 trial of Osama bin Laden and the four men accused of the 1998 United States embassy bombings in East Africa. As a matter of law, the
U.S. Department of Justice needed to show that Osama bin Laden was
the leader of a criminal organization in order to charge him in absentia under the
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act,
also known as the RICO statutes.[29] The name of the
organization and details of its structure were provided in the testimony[30] of Jamal al-Fadl, who claimed to be a founding member of the
organization and a former employee of Osama bin Laden. To quote the documentary directly:
The reality was that bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri had become the focus of a loose association of disillusioned Islamist
militants who were attracted by the new strategy. But there was no organization. These were militants who mostly planned their
own operations and looked to bin Laden for funding and assistance. He was not their commander. There is also no evidence that bin
Laden used the term "al-Qaeda" to refer to the name of a group until after September the 11th, when he realized that this was the
term the Americans had given it.
Questions about the reliability of al-Fadl's testimony have been raised by a number of sources because of his history of
dishonesty and because he was delivering it as part of a plea bargain agreement after being convicted of conspiring to attack
U.S. military establishments.[31][32] Sam Schmidt, a defense lawyer from the trial, had the following to say
about al-Fadl's testimony:
There were selective portions of al-Fadl's testimony that I believe was false, to help support the picture that he helped the
Americans join together. I think he lied in a number of specific testimony about a unified image of what this organization was.
It made al-Qaeda the new Mafia or the new Communists. It made them identifiable as a group and therefore made it easier to
prosecute any person associated with al-Qaeda for any acts or statements made by bin Laden.[33]
There is at least one public reference to the name "al-Qaeda" that pre-dates the 2001 trial. The name appears with the
spelling "al-Qaida" in an executive order issued by President Bill Clinton in 1998, less than two weeks
after the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Executive Order 13099, issued on August 20, 1998, lists the
organization as one of several associated with Osama bin Laden, the others being the
Islamic Army, Islamic Salvation Foundation, the
Islamic Army for the Liberation of the Holy Places, The World Islamic Front for Jihad
Against Jews and Crusaders, and The Group for the Preservation of the Holy
Sites.[34] The name "al-Qaida" could have been
introduced to U.S. intelligence by Jamal al-Fadl, who had been providing the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) with intelligence about bin Laden since 1996, before ultimately appearing as a witness in the
February 2001 trial of those accused of the 1998 United States embassy
bombings.
In this trial, Jamal al-Fadl testified[35] that
al-Qaeda was established in either late 1989 or early 1990 to continue the jihad after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. He claimed that during the
war against the Soviets, bin Laden had been funding a group called
Maktab al-Khadamat, which was led by Abdallah
Azzam. This organization was based in Pakistan and provided training, money and other
support for Muslims who would cross the border into Afghanistan to fight. According to al-Fadl, the Maktab al-Khadamat was disbanded following the Soviet withdrawal, but bin Laden wanted to establish a
new group to continue the jihadist cause on other fronts. Al-Fadl testified that al-Qaeda's leader
was initially Abu Ayoub al-Iraqi, who was later replaced by Abu Ubaidah al-Banshiri, but that both of these leaders nevertheless "reported to" bin-Laden.
Al-Fadl claims the group initially went by two different names "al-Qaeda" and "Islamic Army", before eventually settling on the
former. A meeting was apparently held in Khost, Afghanistan to establish the new group, which al-Fadl claims to have attended.
Al-Fadl's recollection was that this occurred in either late 1989 or early 1990.
Others such as CNN journalist Peter Bergen and author Lawrence Wright dispute Burke's
contention. Bergen argues that two documents seized from the Sarajevo office of the
Illinois-based Benevolence International
Foundation show that the organization was established in August, 1988. Both of these documents contain minutes of meetings
held to establish a new military group and contain the term "al-qaeda". [36]
Author Lawrence Wright also quotes this document (an exhibit from the "Tareek Osama" document presented in United States v.
Enaam M. Arnaout[37]), in his book
The Looming Tower. Notes of a meeting of bin Laden and others on August 20,
1988 indicate "the military base" ("al-qaeda al-askariya"), was a formal group: `basically an organized Islamic faction,
its goal is to lift the word of God, to make His religion victorious.` A list of requirements for membership itemized "listening
and obedient ... good manners" and making a pledge (bayat) to obey superiors. [38] According to Wright, "[t]he name al-Qaeda was not used," in public
pronouncements like the 1998 fatwa to kill Americans and their allies[39] because "its existence was still a closely held secret."[40]
In April 2002, the group assumed the name Qa'idat al-Jihad, which means "the base of Jihad". According to Diaa Rashwan, this was "...apparently as a result of the merger of the overseas branch of Egypt's
al-Jihad group, led by Ayman
El-Zawahiri, with the groups Bin Laden brought under his control after his return to Afghanistan in the
mid-1990s."[41]
History
Background
The radical Islamist movement in general and al-Qaeda in particular developed during the Islamic revival and Islamist movement of the last three decades of the
20th century along with less extreme movements.
- Further information: Islamism#Importance of Islamism and Islamism
Some have argued that "without the writings" of Islamic author and thinker Sayyid Qutb
"al-Qaeda would not have existed."[42] Qutb preached that
because of the lack of sharia law the Muslim world was no longer Muslim, having reverted to
pre-Islamic ignorance known as jahiliyyah. To restore Islam, a vanguard movement of righteous
Muslims was needed to implement Sharia and rid the Muslim world of any non-Muslim influences, such as concepts like socialism or
nationalism. Enemies of Islam included "treacherous Orientalists!" [43] and world Jewry, who plotted "conspiracies" and "wicked[ly]" opposed Islam. [1] [2]
In the words of, Mohammed Jamal Khalia, a close college friend of Osama bin Laden: `Islam is different from any other
religion; it's a way of life. We [Khalia and bin Laden] were trying to understand what Islam has to say about how we eat, who we
marry, how we talk. We read Sayyid Qutb. He was the one who most affected our generation.` [44]
Qutb had an even greater influence on Osama bin Laden's mentor and another leading
member of al-Qaeda,[45] Ayman Zawahiri. Zawahiri's uncle and maternal family patriarch, Mafouz Azzam, was Qutb's student, then
protégé, then personal lawyer and finally executor of his estate - one of the last people to see Qutb before his execution.
"Young Ayman al-Zawahiri heard again and again from his beloved uncle Mahfouz about the purity of Qutb's character and the
torment he had endured in prison."[46] Zawahiri paid
homage to Qutb in his work Knights under the Prophet's Banner. [47]
One of the most powerful effects of Qutb's ideas was the idea that many who said they were Muslims were not, i.e. they were
apostates. These included leaders of Muslims countries since they failed to enforce sharia law.[48]
- Further information: Qutbism#Takfir
Hezbollah
The Lebanese Shia militia group Hezbollah is thought to
have greatly impressed bin Laden and Zawahiri with its effective suicide bombing campaigns against France, the United States (in
1983), and Israel. The 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, which killed 300
French and American peacekeeping troops, is thought to have impressed bin Laden with the effectiveness of using simultaneous
attacks on different targets (the French and American barracks), and the quickness of the American withdrawal from Lebanon
(completed four months after the blast). "That precedent had made a profound impression on bin Laden, who saw that suicide
bombers could be devastatingly effective and that, for all its might, America had no appetite for conflict." [49]
Later Hezbollah bombings of Israeli occupiers in the south of
Lebanon forced the Israeli military out.
Jihad in Afghanistan
-
The origins of the group can be traced to the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
The United States viewed the conflict in Afghanistan between Afghan Marxists and allied
Soviet troops and the the native Afghan mujahedeen as a case of Soviet expansionism/aggression par excellence. The U.S.
channelled funds through the Pakistani intelligence services to the native Afghan mujahedeen
fighting the Soviet occupation in a CIA program called Operation Cyclone.[50][51]
At the same time, a growing number of foreign Arab mujahedeen (also called
Afghan Arabs) joined the jihad against the Afghan Marxist regime, facilitated by international Muslim organizations,
particularly the Maktab al-Khidamat,[52] whose funds came from some of the $600 million a year donated to the
jihad by the Saudi Arabia governmnet and individual Muslims - particularly wealthy Saudis who were approached by Osama bin
Laden.[53]
Whether US aid to Afghan mujahedeen also extended to foreign Arab fighters, such as groups affiliated with Osama bin Laden,
remains a matter of some dispute.
In an article on American "weapons deals", Der Speigel called Bin Laden "one of
the CIA's best weapons customers,"[54] and the Russian
journal Demokratizatsiya has described U.S. support for the Afghan Mujihadeen as "the model for state-sponsored
terrorism."[55]
According to ABC News correspondent John K. Cooley, the U.S. allowed Sheik Abul
Rahman, later revealed as one of the conspirators in the 1993 World
Trade Center bombing, to come to the U.S. to recruit Arab-Americans to fight in Afghanistan against the Soviets.[56]
Monte Palmer, senior fellow at the al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo, believes that "it now appears that the American-sponsored jihad in Afghanistan was the first step in
transforming the jihadist movements of Egypt, Iran, and Pakistan into an international network capable of challenging the United
States. A coalescing of the jihadist movement would have occurred with or without Afghanistan, but the Afghan experience
accelerated this process by years if not decades."[57]
On the other hand, the U.S. government and other maintains that it supported only the indigenous Afghan mujahedeen, and that
with several hundred million a year in funding from Muslim non-American sources, Arab Afghans would have no need for American
funds. Al-Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri says much the same thing in his book
Knights Under the Prophet's Banner.[58]
CNN journalist Peter Bergen, known for conducting the first television interview with
Osama bin Laden in 1997, has stated
The story about bin Laden and the CIA -- that the CIA funded bin Laden or trained bin Laden -- is simply a folk myth. There's
no evidence of this. In fact, there are very few things that bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and the U.S. government agree on. They
all agree that they didn't have a relationship in the 1980s. And they wouldn't have needed to. Bin Laden had his own money, he
was anti-American and he was operating secretly and independently. The real story here is the CIA did not understand who Osama
was until 1996, when they set up a unit to really start tracking him.[59]
The Afghan Mujahedeen of the 1980s have been alleged to be the inspiration for terrorist groups in nations such as Indonesia,
the Philippines, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Chechnya, and the former Yugoslavia.[60] It is alleged that many of the Arab Mujahedin who gained combat experience in
Afghanistan were later involved in terrorist acts against the U.S. According to Russian sources, the perpetrators of the first
World Trade Center bombing in 1993 allegedly used a manual allegedly
written by the CIA for the Mujihadeen fighters in Afghanistan on how to make explosives.[61]
Origins in Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK)
Al-Qaeda evolved from the Maktab al-Khadamat (Services Office), a Muslim
organization founded in 1980 to raise and channel funds and recruit foreign mujahadeen for
the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. It was founded by Abdullah Yusuf Azzam,
a Palestinian Islamic scholar and member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Maktab al-Khadamat organized guest houses in Peshawar
Pakistan near the Afghan border, and paramilitary training camps in Afghanistan to prepare international non-Afghan recruits for
the Afghan war front. Azzam persuaded Bin Laden to join MAK, to use his own money and use his connections with "the Saudi royal
family and the petro-billioners of the Gulf" to raise more to help the mujahideen.[62] The role played by MAK and foreign Muslim volunteers, or "Afghan Arabs," in the war was not a major
one. While 250,000 Afghan Mujahideen fought the Soviets and Marxist Afghan government, it is estimated that were never more than
2000 foreign mujahideen in the field at any one time.[63]
Nonetheless, foreign mujahedeen volunteers came from 43 countries and the number that participated in the Afghan movement between
1982 and 1992 is reported to have been 35,000.[64]
The Soviet Union finally withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989. To the surprise of many,
Mohammed Najibullah's Marxist Afghan government hung on for three more years before
being overrun by elements of the mujahedeen. With mujahedeen leaders unable to agree on a structure for governance, chaos ensued,
with constantly reorganizing alliances fighting for control of ill-defined territories, leaving the country devastated.
The CIA was watching Osama bin Laden at least as early as 1995, due to the discovery of the Oplan Bojinka plot, which in part involved a suicide airplane attack on CIA Headquarters.[citation needed]
Expanding operations
Toward the end of the Soviet military mission in Afghanistan, some mujahedeen wanted to
expand their operations to include Islamist struggles in other parts of the world, such as Israel and Kashmir. A number of
overlapping and interrelated organizations were formed to further those aspirations.
One of these was the organization that would eventually be called al-Qaeda, formed by Osama bin Laden with an initial meeting
held on August 11, 1988.[65] Bin Laden
wished to establish nonmilitary operations in other parts of the world; Azzam, in contrast, wanted to remain focused on military
campaigns. After Azzam was assassinated in 1989, the MAK split, with a significant number joining bin Laden's organization.
In November 1989, Ali Mohammed, a former special forces Sergeant stationed at Fort Bragg,
North Carolina, left military service and moved to Santa Clara, California. He traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan and became deeply involved with
bin Laden's plans. A year later, on November 8, 1990, the FBI
raided the New Jersey home of Mohammed's associate El Sayyid Nosair, discovering a
great deal of evidence of terrorist plots, including plans to blow up New York City skyscrapers. In 1991, Ali Mohammed is said to have helped orchestrate Osama bin Laden's relocation to Sudan.[66]
Gulf War and the start of U.S. enmity
-
Following the Soviet Union's withdrawal from Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden returned to
Saudi Arabia. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 had
put the country of Saudi Arabia and its ruling House of Saud at risk as Saudi's most
valuable oil fields (Hama) were within easy striking distance of Iraqi forces in
Kuwait,[67] and Saddam's call to pan-Arab/Islamism could
potentially rally internal dissent. In the face of a seemingly massive Iraqi military presence, Saudi Arabia's own forces were
well armed but far outnumbered. Bin Laden offered the services of his mujahedeen to King
Fahd to protect Saudi Arabia from the Iraqi army.
The Saudi monarch refused bin Laden's offer,[68]
opting instead to allow U.S. and allied forces to deploy on Saudi territory. The deployment angered Bin Laden, as he believed the
presence of foreign troops in the "land of the two mosques" (Mecca and Medina) profaned sacred soil. After speaking publicly against the Saudi government for harboring American troops,
he was quickly forced into exile to Sudan and on April 9, 1994 his
Saudi citizenship was revoked.[69] His family publicly disowned him. There is
controversy over whether and to what extent he continued to garner support from members of his family and/or the Saudi
government.[70]
Shortly afterwards, the movement that came to be known as al-Qaeda was formed.
Refuge in Afghanistan
-
After the Soviet withdrawal, Afghanistan was effectively ungoverned for seven years and plagued by constant infighting between
former allies and various mujahedeen groups.
Throughout the 1990s, a new force began to emerge. The origins of the Taliban (literally
"students") lay in the children of Afghanistan, many of them orphaned by the war, and many of whom had been educated in the
rapidly expanding network of Islamic schools (madrassas) either in Kandahar or in the refugee camps on the Afghan-Pakistani border.
According to Ahmed Rashid, five leaders of the Taliban were graduates of a single madrassa, Darul Uloom Haqqania (also known
as “the University of Jihad",)[71] in the small town of
Akora Khattak near Peshawar, situated in Pakistan but largely attended by Afghan refugees.[72] This
institution reflected Salafi beliefs in its teachings, and much of its funding came from private donations from wealthy Arabs,
for whom bin Laden provided conduit. A further four leading figures (including the perceived Taliban leader Mullah
Mohammed Omar Mujahed) attended a similarly funded and influenced madrassa in Kandahar,
Afghanistan.
Many of the mujahedeen who later joined the Taliban fought alongside Afghan warlord Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi's Harkat i Inqilabi group at the time of the Russian invasion. This
group also enjoyed the loyalty of most Afghan Arab fighters.
The continuing internecine strife between various factions, and accompanying lawlessness following the Soviet withdrawal,
enabled the growing and well-disciplined Taliban to expand their control over territory in Afghanistan, and they came to
establish an enclave which it called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
In 1994, they captured the regional center of Kandahar, and after making rapid territorial
gains thereafter, conquered the capital city Kabul in September 1996.
After Sudan made it clear that bin Laden and his group were no longer welcome that year,
Taliban-controlled Afghanistan — with previously established connections between the groups, a similar outlook on world affairs
and largely isolated from American political influence and military power — provided a perfect location for al-Qaeda to establish
its headquarters. Al-Qaeda enjoyed the Taliban's protection and a measure of legitimacy as part of their Ministry of Defense,
although only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the
United Arab Emirates recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of
Afghanistan.
Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and the Pakistani border regions are
alleged to have trained militant Muslims from around the world.[citation needed] Despite the perception of some people, al-Qaeda members are ethnically
diverse and connected by their radical version of Islam.
An ever-expanding network of supporters thus enjoyed a safe haven in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan until the Taliban were
defeated by a combination of local forces and
United States air power in 2001 (see section September 11, attacks and the United States response).
Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders are still believed to be located in areas where the population is sympathetic to the
Taliban in Afghanistan or the border Tribal Areas of Pakistan.
Militant operations pre-dating the September 11, 2001 attacks
The first terrorist attack
On December 29, 1992, Al-Qaeda's first terrorist attack
took place. Two bombs were detonated in Aden, Yemen. The first
target was the Movenpick Hotel and the second was the parking lot of the Goldmohur Hotel. The bombings were an attempt to
eliminate American soldiers on their way to Somalia to take part in the international famine relief effort, Operation Restore Hope. Internally, al-Qaeda considered the bombing a victory that frightened the
Americans away, but in the United States the attack was barely noticed. No Americans were killed because the soldiers were
staying in a different hotel altogether, and they went on to Somalia as scheduled. However, little noticed, the attack was
pivotal as it was the beginning of al-Qaeda's change in direction, from fighting armies to killing civilians.[73] Two people were killed in the bombing, an Australian tourist and a Yemeni
hotel worker. Seven other mostly Yemenis, were severely injured.
Two fatwa are said to have been appointed by the most theologically knowledgable of
al-Qaeda's members, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, aka Abu Hajer al Iraqi, to justify the
killings according to Islamic law. Mamdouh Mahmud Salim referred to the thirteenth-century scholar Ibn Taymiyyah, much admired by Wahhabis. In a famous fatwa, Ibn Tamiyyah had ruled that Muslims should
kill the invading Mongols, and so too Salim said al-Qaeda should kill American soldiers. The second fatwa followed another of Ibn
Tamiyyah's, that Muslims should not only kill Mongols but anyone who aided the Mongols, who bought goods from them or sold to
them. In addition the killing of someone merely standing near a Mongol was justified as well. He ruled these killings just
because any innocent bystander, like the Yemenite hotel worker, would find their proper reward in death, going to Paradise if
they were good Muslims and to hell if they were bad.[74]
This became Al-Qaeda's justification for killing civilians.[75]
First World Trade Center bombing
-
In 1993, al-Qaeda associate Ramzi Yousef used a truck bomb to attack the
World Trade Center in New York City. The
attack was intended to break the foundation of Tower One knocking it into Tower Two, bringing the entire complex down. Yousef
hoped this would kill 250,000 people. The towers shook and swayed but the foundation held and he succeeded in killing only six
people (although he injured 1,042 others and caused nearly $300 million in property damage).[76][77][78]
None of the U.S. government's indictments against Osama bin Laden have suggested that he had any connection with this bombing,
but Ramzi Yousef is known to have attended a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. Yousef declared that his primary
justification for the attack was to punish the United States for its support for the Israeli occupation of Palestinian
territories. Religious motivations were notably absent from the justifications that he provided.[79]
After the attack, Yousef fled to Pakistan and later moved to Manila. There he began developing
the Bojinka Plot plans to blow up a dozen American airliners simultaneously, to
assassinate Pope John Paul II and President Bill Clinton, and to crash a private plane
into CIA headquarters. He was later captured in Pakistan.[80][81]
1995-2000 fatwa declarations and bomb attacks
-
On November 13 1995 a van containing a hundred pounds of Semtex explosive blew up near the communications center for the Saudi
National Guard in downtown Riyadh, Saudi Arbia, where some American military contractors and Army officers had been training the
Saudi National Guard. Seven people were killed, five of them Americans, and sixty people were injured. The Saudi government
arrested four men, "torturing confessions" out of them that they had been inspired by bin Laden's speechs and trained at
Al-Qaeda's camp in Afghanistan, and quickly executed them. It is unclear if they had anyting to do with the crime. As with many
bombings suspected to be the work of al-Qaeda, bin Laden praised the attacks but denied authorizing the attack or training the
bombers.[82]
In 1996, al-Qaeda announced its jihad to expel foreign troops and interests from what they felt
were Islamic lands. Bin Laden issued a fatwa,[83] which amounted to a public declaration of war against the United States and any of its allies, and began to focus al-Qaeda's resources towards attacking the
United States and its interests.
On February 23, 1998, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, a leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad,
along with three other Islamist leaders, co-signed and issued a fatwa (binding religious edict) under the banner of the
World Islamic Front for Combat Against the Jews and Crusaders (al-Jabhah
al-Islamiyya al-'Alamiyya li-Qital al-Yahud wal-Salibiyyin) declaring:
[T]he ruling to kill the Americans and their allies - civilians and military — is an individual duty for every Muslim who can
do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa
Mosque (in Jerusalem) and the holy mosque (in Makka) from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable
to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, 'and fight the
pagans all together as they fight you all together,' and 'fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there
prevail justice and faith in Allah'.[84]
Neither bin Laden nor al-Zawahiri possessed the traditional Islamic scholarly qualifications to issue a fatwa of any kind;
however, they rejected the authority of the contemporary ulema (seen as the paid servants of
jahiliyya rulers) and took it upon themselves.[85] 1998 was also the year of the first major terrorist attack reliably attributed
to al-Qaeda- the U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa, resulting in upward of 300 deaths, mostly locals. A barrage of cruise missiles launched by the U.S. military in response devastated an al-Qaeda base in Khost, Afghanistan, but the network's capacity was unharmed.
Bin Laden then turned his sights towards the United States Navy. In October 2000,
al-Qaeda militants in Yemen bombed the missile destroyer U.S.S. Cole in a suicide attack, killing
17 U.S. servicemen and damaging the vessel while it lay offshore. Inspired by the success of such a brazen attack, al-Qaeda's
command core began to prepare for an attack on the United States itself.
September 11, 2001, attacks and the United States response
-
The September 11, 2001, attacks are attributed by most observers to
military forces of al-Qaeda, acting in accord with the 1998 fatwa
issued against the United States and its allies by military forces under the command of bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, and
others.[86] Evidence points to suicide squads led by
al-Qaeda military commander Mohammed Atta as the culprits of the attacks, with
bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri,
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and Hambali as
the key planners and part of the political and military command. While messages believed to be from bin Laden after
September 11,2001 have praised the attacks, a statement
issued six days later through Al Jazeera allegedly denied his involvement.[87] However, although bin Laden denied involvement, he sought to
legitimize the attacks to the general Muslim public by identifying grievances of both mainstream Muslims and extremists, such as
the general perception that the United States was actively oppressing Muslims.[88] For example, bin Laden claimed that America was massacring Muslims in 'Palestine, Chechnya, Kashmir
and Iraq' and that Muslims should retain the 'right to attack in reprisal'. He also claimed the 9/11 attacks were not targeted at
women and children, but 'America's icons of military and economic power'.[89]
The attacks were the most devastating terrorist acts in American history, killing
nearly 3,000 people, destroying four commercial airliners, leveling the World Trade
Center towers, and damaging The Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense.
Evidence has since come to light that the original targets for the attack may have been nuclear power stations on the east
coast of the U.S. The targets were later altered by al-Qaeda, as it was thought that the US retaliation would be too
great.[90][91]
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the United States
government decided to respond
militarily, and began to prepare its armed forces to overthrow the
Taliban regime it believed was harboring al-Qaeda. Before the United States attacked, it offered Taliban leader Mullah Omar a chance to surrender bin Laden and his top associates. The Taliban offered to turn over bin
Laden to a neutral country for trial if the United States would provide evidence of bin
Laden's complicity in the attacks. U.S. President George W. Bush responded by saying: "We know he's guilty. Turn him over",[92] and British Prime Minister Tony Blair
warned the Taliban regime: "Surrender bin Laden, or surrender power". Soon thereafter the United States and its allies invaded
Afghanistan, and together with the Afghan Northern
Alliance removed the Taliban government in the war in
Afghanistan.
U.S. troops in Afghanistan
As a result of the United States using its special
forces and providing air support for the Northern Alliance ground forces, both Taliban and al-Qaeda training camps were
destroyed, and much of the operating structure of al-Qaeda is believed to have been disrupted. After being driven from their key
positions in the Tora Bora area of Afghanistan, many
al-Qaeda fighters tried to regroup in the rugged Gardez region of the nation. Again, under the
cover of intense aerial bombardment, U.S. infantry and local Afghan forces attacked, shattering the al-Qaeda position and killing or capturing many of
the militants. By early 2002, al-Qaeda had been dealt a serious blow to its operational capacity, and the Afghan invasion
appeared an initial success. Nevertheless, a significant Taliban insurgency remains
in Afghanistan, and al-Qaeda's top two leaders, bin Laden and al-Zawahiri, evaded
capture.
In his book, "Brotherhood of Terror", author Paul L. Williams describes plans
recovered from raids on terrorist camps in Afghanistan that indicate future attacks both on the United States and Europe,
including strikes on targets highly populated by Jews and a plot to smuggle nuclear materials into America in order to construct
and detonate a weapon on American soil. He also claims that al-Qaeda had purchased as many as twenty Russian suitcase nukes from
members of the Chechen mafia.
Debate raged about the exact nature of al-Qaeda's role in the 9/11 attacks, and after the U.S. invasion began, the
U.S. State Department also released a videotape showing bin Laden speaking with a small group of associates somewhere in Afghanistan
shortly before the Taliban was removed from power.[93]
Although its authenticity has been questioned by some,[94] the tape appears to implicate bin Laden and al-Qaeda in the September 11 attacks and was aired on many television channels
all over the world, with an accompanying English translation provided by the United States
Defense Department.
In September 2004, the U.S. government commission investigating the September 11
attacks officially concluded that the attacks were conceived and implemented by al-Qaeda operatives.[95] In October 2004, bin Laden appeared to claim responsibility for the attacks in
a videotape released through Al Jazeera, saying he was inspired by Israeli
attacks on high-rises in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon: "As I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon, it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressor in kind and that we should destroy towers in
America in order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and
children."[96]
By the end of 2004, the U.S. government claimed that two-thirds of the top leaders of al-Qaeda from 2001 were in custody
(including Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, Saif al Islam el
Masry, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri) or dead (including Mohammed Atef). Despite the capture or death of many senior al-Qaeda operatives, the U.S. government
continues to warn that the organization is not yet defeated, and battles between U.S. forces and al-Qaeda-related groups
continue.
In the meantime, autonomous regional branches of al-Qaeda continue to emerge around the world.[citation needed]
Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, average yearly incidence of attacks have
increased by 607 percent. 91 percent of foreign policy experts say the world is becoming more dangerous for Americans and the
United States, according to a survey conducted by the Center for American Progress and Foreign Policy. 84 percent of those
experts believe that the U.S. military is not winning the war on terror, and 92 percent believe that the war is further
endangering U.S. security.[97]
Other regional activities
Africa
Algeria
-
An insurgency is being waged by the Salafist Group for
Preaching and Combat (which is called today as the Al-Qaeda
Organization in the Islamic Maghreb) against the Algerian government. It is a spin-off to
the Algerian Civil War that ended in 2002, and has been
linked to bombings in Algiers, Batna
and Dellys.
The group has declared its intention to attack Algerian, French, and American targets. It has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. Department of State, and similarly classed as a terrorist organization by the
European Union.
Eritrea
As soon as the allied Somali and Ethiopian forces drove out the Islamic Courts
Union in January of 2007, some of their leadership found safe haven in Eritrea.[98] The top level leaders of the ICU include non-Somali Arab jihadists as well as
terrorists accused of embassy bombings in Kenya & Tanzania.[99][100] America also condemned
Eritrea since it continued to "fund, arm, train and advise the insurgents" attacking the Somalia government.[101][102] Further military operation by the allied Somali & Ethiopian forces as well as American planes
in Somalia have forced the Al-Qaeda suspects to run away to a refugee in Eritrea, though some have been killed in
Puntland before they escaped.[103]
Some Eritrean soldiers were also sited working with Arab & Al-Qaeda fighters against the Somalia government. According to
a Somali regional governor, the foreign alliance attacked government positions at Koryoley.[104]
According to BBC, the Pentagon said a high level Al-Qaeda member from the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) was captured in Somalia
and transferred to the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay.[105][106] The Economist, a London based paper, reported that the Eritrean government is sheltering the leadership of
the insurgency in Somalia.[107] The United Nations
continued to report of Eritrean assistance to Somalis with links to Al-Qaeda. Accordingly, the UN Security Council said that
Eritrea has secretly supplied "huge quantities of arms" to a Somali insurgent group with alleged ties to al Qaeda, in violation
of an international arms embargo and despite the deployment of African peacekeepers" adding that it has been "provided to the
Shabab by and through Eritrea" since December 2006.[108]
According to a top U.S. diplomat, the United States is considering to put Eritrea on "State Sponsor
of Terrorism" list for its alleged support of al-Qaida-linked Islamist militants in Somalia.
