Al-Qaeda still remains a formidable threat despite suffering setbacks in Pakistan last year, and it has been able to strengthen its position in other regions, the US State Department said Thursday, dpa reported.
Pakistan's military crackdown of remote regions near the border with Afghanistan has weakened al-Qaeda, but its core leadership remains the "most formidable terrorist organization targeting the US homeland," the State Department's annual report on global terrorism said.
The terrorist network's loss of leaders has made it hard to raise money and recruit, said Daniel Benjamin, the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism. Al-Qaeda has also been hurt by Muslims angry over the targetting of other Muslims, he said.
At the same time, al-Qaeda has grown in strength through allies like al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and through the Somali group al-Shabaab and the North African group Islamic Maghreb. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has been effective by taking advantage of a weak government in Yemen to increase its presence, Benjamin said.
The failed December 25 attack on a US airliner over Detroit was linked to AQAP and is a further sign of the threat posed to US security, he added.
The report included figures showing the number of terrorist attacks worldwide dropped in 2009, as did the number of people killed in attacks. Globally, there were 10,999 terrorist attacks last year, down from 11,725 in the previous year. But there was a major spike in Afghanistan due to intensified attacks by the Taliban, according to the figures first released in April.
The report made no changes to its list of state sponsors off terrorism. Cuba, Iran, Syria and Sudan are the four countries on the list.