Osama's Faithful Regroup, Return . . .

Osama's Faithful Regroup, Return

Small numbers of al-Qaeda go to Afghanistan

Tuesday, September 10, 2002
By James Risen & Dexter Filkins
New York Times News Service

Al-Qaeda's leaders, including bin Laden himself, are either dead, in
prison, in hiding or on the run. Some senior U.S. counterterrorism officials are even willing to say they believe that the group -- at least right now -- lacks the ability to mount another terrorist operation on the scale of the Sept. 11 attacks. Of the 24 members of al-Qaeda's leadership identified by the Central Intelligence Agency before Sept. 11, 10 have either been killed or captured, officials said.

WASHINGTON -- NYT
U.S. intelligence officials say that al-Qaeda operatives who found refuge in Pakistan are starting to regroup and move back into Afghanistan, less than a year after a successful U.S. military campaign forced them to flee their one-time sanctuary by the thousands.

The movement back into Afghanistan is still relatively small and is being conducted by al-Qaeda members traveling in small groups, the officials say. Most of the thousands who escaped Afghanistan after U.S.-led forces defeated the Taliban government are not seeking to return.

Instead, they remain scattered throughout South Asia and the Middle East, creating a terrorist diaspora that is now of deep concern to U.S. counterterrorism officials. Some have found havens in Iran and Iraq, although U.S. intelligence officials are divided about whether they are receiving active support from either country.

Still, U.S. officials say the world's largest concentrations of al-Qaeda operatives are now in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the recent influx into Afghanistan is creating new dangers.

Al-Qaeda members are believed to have launched a series of small attacks against U.S. forces in Afghanistan in recent weeks and may have been behind the attempted assassination of the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, and the deadly car bombing in Kabul last Thursday, according to Afghan and U.S. officials.

* Threat to Afghanistan
* Al-Qaeda adapts
* No drop in planning
(More: Corpus Christi Caller-Times News Source)
2002 © The New York Times Company.

Dan