Al-Qaida Making Mergers

Despite U.S. efforts to quash al-Qaida, the terrorist organization is rebuilding its base in rural Pakistan—and doing some serious networking to connect with other militant groups in Africa and the Middle East, steering them to focus on Western targets on a local and international scale.

Financial Times:

One of the first signs of the development was an announcement on September 11 last year by Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s number two, of a “merger” between al-Qaeda in the Maghreb and Algeria’s Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known by its French initials, GSPC.

Western officials expect to see a similar merger be­tween al-Qaeda and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a mainly exiled organisation devoted until now to the overthrow of Muammer Gadaffi, the Libyan leader.

They say there are signs that similar moves are under way in Lebanon, Syria and East Africa and that there is an effort to unite militant groups across north Africa.

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