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![handle is hein.crs/govepqo0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Con re sCan JR SE
informing I len I ive de a
Updated May 6, 2024
Al Qaeda: Background, Current Status, and U.S. Policy
Al Qaeda (AQ, alt. Al Qaida or Al Qa'eda) is a
transnational Sunni Islamist terrorist organization with a
network of affiliates. The group rose to global prominence
after perpetrating the September 11, 2001, attacks (9/11) in
the United States. Since then, sustained counterterrorism
(CT) efforts by the United States and its partners have
weakened the group, particularly in its historic base in
Afghanistan. For several years, U.S. officials and
international observers have characterized the AQ threat as
stemming mainly from the group's affiliates in Yemen and
Africa. The 2024 Annual Threat Assessment (ATA) of the
U.S. Intelligence Community described Africa as the
center of gravity in the Sunni global jihad, although it did
not characterize affiliates there as posing a direct threat to
the U.S. homeland. U.S. policy efforts, as directed and
overseen by Congress, to counter Al Qaeda have included
military action, foreign partnerships, sanctions, and law
enforcement activities.
ackground
In 1988, Osama bin Laden established Al Qaeda from a
network of Arab and other foreign veterans of the U.S.-
backed Afghan insurgency against the Soviet Union, with
the aim of supporting Islamist causes in conflicts around the
world. After the 1991 Gulf War, citing opposition to Saudi
Arabia's decision to host U.S. troops and other grievances,
the group made the United States its primary target. Bin
Laden left his native Saudi Arabia that year for Sudan, until
the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in 1996 and offered
refuge to AQ members and other armed Islamists.
Al Qaeda conducted terrorist attacks against U.S. and allied
targets prior to 9/11, including the 1998 bombings of U.S.
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania (after which the United
States launched airstrikes against targets in Afghanistan and
Sudan) and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen. The
United States designated Al Qaeda as a Foreign Terrorist
Organization (FTO) in 1999. After 9/11, the United States
launched military operations to topple the Taliban
government in Afghanistan and expanded its CT efforts
worldwide. Some AQ leaders fled to Pakistan, where U.S.
forces killed Bin Laden in 2011. AQ attacks against U.S.
and Western targets worldwide continued in the years after
9/11, but the group has not successfully carried out a major
attack inside the United States since then.
Leadersh p
After Bin Laden's death, Ayman al Zawahiri, Bin Laden's
deputy for over a decade, served as AQ's leader. Some
observers attributed purported AQ struggles (including its
failure to strike inside the United States) under Zawahiri to
what they described as his understated leadership, as
compared to Bin Laden's charisma. Others argued that
Zawahiri's more restrained approach was an asset that
created space for AQ affiliates to pursue regionally tailored
strategies and make inroads into local communities.
On July 31, 2022, Zawahiri was killed by a U.S. drone
strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, though neither AQ nor the
Taliban formally acknowledged his death. Al Qaeda has
also not announced Zawahiri's successor, though United
Nations sanctions monitors and others assess that the de
facto leader of the group is Sayf al Adl. Al Adl reportedly
resides in Iran; Iran's government has allowed some AQ
figures to operate in its territory despite historic enmity
between Sunni Al Qaeda and Iran's Shia Islamic Republic.
AQ leaders may view Iran as relatively safe from U.S.
counterterrorism pressure, while Iranian leaders may view
AQ's presence as leverage against the United States, as well
as an opportunity to support another U.S. adversary.
Structure
Al Qaeda once had a hierarchical organization and a
relatively small and geographically contained membership.
The attenuation of AQ core leadership, the growth of
regional affiliates, and the rise of the Islamic State (IS) in
2014 (which challenged AQ claims to be the global leader
of Islamist terrorism) have changed the organization.
Analysts have long debated how to characterize the shifting
ties between AQ leadership and groups that have pledged
allegiance to it, as well as the relationships among these
self-described affiliates. AQ appears to have devolved
operational responsibility to regional affiliates as it has
shifted away from centrally directed plotting, per the 2022
ATA. The traditional power dynamic may even have
reversed, with the affiliates now providing resources and
legitimacy to the group's core leadership; the 2024 ATA
assessed that AQ affiliates on the African continent and
Yemen will sustain the global network as the group
maintains its strategic intent to target the United States and
U.S. citizens. Al Qaeda may persist as a group that
inspires ideologically motivated terrorism against U.S.
interests around the world and opportunistically enters (or
secures the allegiance of participants in) local conflicts.
Changes in the relative balance of these elements of the
group's identity and structure may in turn prompt changes
in the focus of U.S. counterterrorism efforts over time.
Status n Afghan stan
The Taliban's 2021 return to power in Afghanistan has had
a mixed impact on Al Qaeda. The two are long-time allies,
and U.N. sanctions monitors reported in early 2024 that
their relationship remains strong, despite Taliban efforts
to constrain some [AQ] activities. U.N. sanctions
monitors also conveyed an assessment from regional
governments that Al Qaeda continues to pose a threat in
the region, and potentially beyond, while also stating that
the group cannot at present project sophisticated attacks at
long range. That latter assessment largely aligns with U.S.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/govepqo0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)