Al Qaidas new leaders

last updated 8 January 2015

Waziristan, Pakistan

Osama bin Laden has trained a new generation of al Qaida leaders at his camps in Pakistan, The New York Times reported this week. According to unnamed U.S. intelligence officials, al Qaida has rebounded in the lawless, tribal areas of Pakistan, after being routed out of Afghanistan by the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. The group has apparently learned some lessons from that experience: It is now operating more diffusely, from several hubs, including the offshoot called al Qaida in Iraq. Iraq, in fact, is the arena that could produce the most dangerous militants, experts said. “The jihadis returning from Iraq are far more capable than the mujahedeen who fought the Soviets ever were,” said Robert Richer, a former CIA associate director. “They have been fighting the best military in the world, with the best technology and tactics.”