Al-Qaeda operatives who fled into Pakistan after the US-led attacks on the Taliban last year are regrouping and moving back into Afghanistan, the New York Timesreported today, quoting US intelligence officials.
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Since late 2001, thousands of al-Qaeda members have fled Afghanistan and scattered throughout South Asia and the Middle East, according to the intelligence officials.
But the largest concentrations of al-Qaeda operatives remain in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and small groups are now returning to Afghanistan, the officials said.
Al-Qaeda members were probably behind recent attacks on US forces in Afghanistan, as well as the attempted assassination last week of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, US officials told the New York Times.
But some senior US counter-terrorism officials said they believed Osama bin Laden's network could not now execute a large September 11th-style attack.
"Could al-Qaeda mount four simultaneous operations against major targets in the United States today? I don't think so," a senior US law enforcement official told the the paper.
The paper said US intelligence officials had tracked some al-Qaeda operatives into Iraq and Iran but were divided as to whether they received official support from the governments of either country.
AFP