Rather than crushing al-Qaeda by bombing its bases in Afghanistan, the United States and its allies have empowered the terrorist organisation by scattering its fighters around the world, the foremost authority on the group claims.
Rohan Gunaratna, the author of the best-selling book, Inside Al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror, said that apart from relocating its human resources, al-Qaeda had smuggled weapons out of Afghanistan. Among them were the surface-to-air missiles which had been used in the attacks in Kenya on Thursday. They posed a frightening threat to passenger aircraft, Dr Gunaratna said.
He said the suicide bombing at the Paradise Hotel near Mombasa that killed 16 people and the almost simultaneous firing of two missiles that narrowly missed an Israeli plane as it left the port city, bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda.
'Al-Qaeda has been able to mount medium-to-small-scale operations, including attacks on multiple ground, sea and air targets,' the British-based researcher said from Singapore. 'The threat posed by al-Qaeda is likely to remain in the immediate term.'
Observers say October's Bali bombings, which have been linked to al-Qaeda through extremist Muslim groups in Indonesia, were proof of the new post-Afghanistan strategy.
Recent reports have pointed to wanted international terrorist Riduan Issamuddin, known as Hambali, being al-Qaeda's chief in Southeast Asia. The group's only non-Arab senior leader, he is thought to be the head of the militant regional group Jemaah Islamiah, suspected of planning the October 12 Bali bombings, which killed more than 190 people.
