Al-Qaeda more dangerous than ever despite Bin Laden's death: US experts
Hopes of demise premature as new recruits and safe havens mean extremists still pose threat
More than 2-1/2 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 have warned.
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.
Bin Laden'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 lawless tribal badlands on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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.
"Their leadership has been hit very hard, but this brand is still growing. And it's growing from an increased number of safe havens," said retired US Marine Corps general James Mattis.
Mattis may have hung up his uniform, but he admits the war is far from over, warning: "The congratulations that we heard two years ago on the demise of al-Qaeda were premature and are now discredited."