Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda ({{lang-ar|???????}}, al-Q??idah; "the foundation" or "the base") is the name given to an international Islamic fundamentalist campaign comprised of independent and collaborative cells that all profess the same cause of reducing outside influence upon Islamic affairs. Though al-Qaeda is philosophically heterogeneous, prominent members of the movement are considered to have Salafi beliefs. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8524679

History of al-Qaeda

Afghan jihad

Al-Qaeda evolved from the Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK) ? a Mujahidin resistance organization fighting against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Osama bin Laden was a founding member of the MAK, along with Palestinian militant Abdullah Yusuf Azzam. The role of the MAK was to channel funds from a variety of sources (including donations from across the Middle East) into training Mujahidin from around the world in guerrilla combat, and to transport the combatants to Afghanistan. Bin Laden and the MAK have allegedly been aided by the governments of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and by the United States, which channelled all of its support via the Pakistani intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate, for the ultimate goal of fighting communism. The Arab contingent in Afghanistan during the latter half of the 1980s was quite small and not generally involved in the fighting, rather limiting its activities to logistics, housing, recruitment and financing of the mujahideen. Bin Laden, the MAK, and most of the Arab volunteers were largely unknown to the CIA and the American government during the war to oust the Soviet from Afghanistan; only later would the Arab element come to U.S. attention.

Related Topics:
Maktab al-Khadamat - Mujahidin - Soviet invasion of Afghanistan - 1980s - Palestinian - Abdullah Yusuf Azzam - Pakistan - Saudi Arabia - United States - Communism

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Toward the end of the Soviet occupation, some Mujahidin wanted to expand their operations to include Islamist struggles in other parts of the world. A number of overlapping and interrelated organizations were formed to further those aspirations.

Related Topics:
Soviet - Mujahidin

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One of these was the organization that would eventually be called al-Qaeda, which was formed by Osama bin Laden in 1988. Bin Laden wished to extend the conflict to nonmilitary operations in other parts of the world; Azzam, in contrast, wanted to remain focused on military campaigns. After Azzam was assassinated in 1989, the MAK split, with a significant number joining bin Laden's organization.

Related Topics:
1988 - 1989

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Since other parts of the world were often not in such open warfare as Afghanistan under the Soviet occupation, the move from MAK to al-Qaeda involved more training in terrorist tactics. Other organizations were formed, including others by Osama bin Laden, to carry out different types of terrorism in different countries.

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Gulf War and start of US enmity

After the Soviet union withdrew from Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia, while training operations in Afghanistan continued. Once the gulf war began, Saudi Arabia appeared to be under a very real threat of invasion from Iraqi forces. He offered the services of his mujahideen (holy warriors) to protect the Saudi Arabia from the Iraqi army. After careful deliberation the Saudi Monarch (King Fahd) opted to allow United States (and coalition forces) to protect his country.

Related Topics:
Saudi Arabia - King Fahd

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Bin Laden considered this a treacherous deed; allowing infidels to set foot on the soil of the land of the two mosques. He spoke against the Saudi government during the Gulf War for harboring American troops on Saudi soil and was exiled from Saudi Arabia with the renunciation of his Saudi citizenship. The presence of foreign troops in the "land of the two mosques" (Mecca and Medina) was perceived by many Islamists as profaning sacred soil and exemplified the corruption that they believed typified Arab governments.

Related Topics:
Mecca - Medina

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From these roots the al-Qaeda movement formed.

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Sudan

In 1991, Sudan's National Islamic Front, an Islamist group that had recently gained power, invited al-Qaeda to move operations to their country. For several years, al-Qaeda ran several businesses (including an import/export business, farms, and a construction firm) in Sudan. They also ran a number of camps where they trained aspirants in the use of firearms and explosives.

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In 1996, Osama bin Laden was expelled from Sudan after possible participation in the 1994 attempted assassination of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak while his motorcade was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A controversy exists regarding whether Sudan offered to turn bin Laden over to the U.S. prior to the expulsion. A tape recording of Bill Clinton appears to confirm the offer http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/6/22/11958.shtml, however Clinton later said that was not true.http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/6/20/201248.shtml

Related Topics:
1996 - 1994 - Egyptian - Hosni Mubarak - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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Bosnia

The secession of Bosnia from the Serb dominated Yugoslavian Federation and the subsequent declaration of Bosnia-Herzegovinan sovereignty in October 1991 opened up a new ethnic and quasi-religious conflict at the heart of Europe.

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Bosnia and Herzegovina was ethnically diverse, with a nominal Muslim majority but with significant numbers of ethnic (Orthodox Christian) Serbs and (Roman Catholic) Croats distributed across its territory. It comprised a large, but militarily weak component of the former Yugoslavia and Yugoslavian disintegration saw some ethnic Serbs and some ethnic Croats within Bosnia, supported by their rump adjacent states, engage in a three way conflict against the Bosnian Muslim dominated core.

Related Topics:
Bosnia and Herzegovina - Orthodox Christian - Serbs - Roman Catholic - Croats

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Radical Arab veterans of the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan seized on Bosnia as a new opportunity to "defend Islam". Besieged on two fronts and seemingly abandoned by the West, the Bosnian regime was willing to accept any help it could get, military or financial, including that of a number of Islamic organisations, of which al-Qaeda was one.

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Several close associates of Osama bin Laden (most notably, Saudi Khalid bin Udah bin Muhammad al-Harbi, alias Abu Sulaiman al-Makki) joined the conflict in Bosnia, but while al-Qaeda might initially have seen Bosnia as a possible bridgehead enabling the radicalisation of European Muslims for operations against other European states and America, Bosnian Muslims had been secularised for generations and their interest in fighting was largely limited to securing the survival of their nascent state.

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The "Bosnian Mujahidin" (comprising largely Arab veterans of the Afghan war and not necessarily members of al-Qaeda) thus operated as a largely autonomous force within central Bosnia. While their bravery in the fray initially attracted a small number of native Bosnians to join them, their brutality and a rising number of atrocites committed against civilians came to appal many native Bosnians and repelled new recruits. At the same time their vigorous attempts to Islamicize the local population with rules on appropriate dress and behaviour were widely resented and largely went unheeded. In his book Al-Qaida?s Jihad in Europe: the Afghan-Bosnian network, Evan Kohlmann sums up: ?In spite of vigorous efforts to ?Islamicise? the nominally Muslim Bosnian populace, the locals could not be convinced to abandon pork, alcohol, or public displays or affection. Bosnian women persistently refused to wear the hijab or follow the other mandates for female behaviour prescribed by extreme fundamentalist Islam.?

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The signing of the Washington Agreement in March 1994 brought to an end the Bosnian-Croatian conflict. While the "Bosnian Mujahidin" remained to fight on in the war against the Serbs, the Dayton Peace Accord of November 1995 brought that conflict to an end and required that foreign fighters disband and leave the country, with aid being conditional on this taking place. With Bosnian government support, NATO forces took effective action to close their bases and deport them. A limited number of former Mujahidin who had either married native Bosnians or who could not be found a country to go to were permitted to stay in Bosnia and granted Bosnian citizenship, but with the war in Bosnia over, many committed battle-hardened veterans had already returned to familiar territory.

Related Topics:
Washington Agreement - Dayton Peace Accord - NATO

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Return to Afghanistan

Taking advantage of an invitation from some Afghan warlords, al-Qaeda returned to Afghanistan. There, bin Laden quickly established ties with the fledgling Taliban group, led by Mohammed Omar, and by providing funds and weapons at a crucial time helped the group rise to power. Thereafter al-Qaeda enjoyed the Taliban's protection and a measure of legitimacy as part of their Ministry of Defense, although only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

Related Topics:
Taliban - Mohammed Omar - United Arab Emirates

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Al-Qaeda training camps trained militant Muslims from around the world, some of whom later applied their training in various conflicts in places such as India, Algeria, Chechnya, the Philippines, Egypt, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Somalia, Yemen, Kosovo, and Bosnia. Other terrorists came from Pakistan, parts of Africa, the People's Republic of China (Uighurs), and the United Kingdom. These terrorists intermingled at their camps, causing all of those causes to become one. Despite the perception of some people, al-Qaeda members are ethnically diverse and are connected by their radical version of Islam.

Related Topics:
India - Algeria - Chechnya - Philippines - Egypt - Indonesia - Uzbekistan - Afghanistan - Tajikistan - Somalia - Yemen - Kosovo - Bosnia - Pakistan - Africa - People's Republic of China - Uighur - United Kingdom

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Start of militant operations against civilians

On February 23, 1998, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri of Egyptian Islamic Jihad issued a fatwa under the banner of the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders saying that "to kill Americans and their allies, civilians, and military is an individual duty of every Muslim who is able." Although neither man possessed the Islamic credentials, education or stature to issue a fatwa of any kind, this seems to have been overlooked in the enthusiasm of the moment. This was also the year of the first major terrorist act reliably attributed to al-Qaeda, the embassy bombings in East Africa, which resulted in upward of 300 deaths. In 1999, Egyptian Islamic Jihad officially merged with al-Qaeda, and al-Zawahiri became bin Laden's right-hand man.

Related Topics:
February 23 - 1998 - Ayman al-Zawahiri - Egyptian Islamic Jihad - Fatwa - Embassy bombings - East Africa - 1999

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September 11 attacks

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks by al-Qaeda, the United States began to build up military forces in preparation for an attack on Afghanistan (whose government harboured bin Laden's organization) in response. In the weeks before the United States invaded, the Taliban twice offered to turn over bin Laden to a neutral country for trial if the United States would provide evidence of bin Laden's complicity in the attacks. The Americans, however, refused, and soon thereafter invaded Afghanistan and, together with the Afghan Northern Alliance, deposed the Taliban government.

Related Topics:
September 11, 2001 attacks - Invaded Afghanistan - Afghan Northern Alliance - Taliban

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Battles between the United States and the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces continue as of 2005. As a result of this invasion, the al-Qaeda training camps were destroyed, and much of the existing operating structure of al-Qaeda was disrupted. The American government now claims that two-thirds of the top leaders of al-Qaeda in 2001 are currently in custody (including Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, Saif al Islam el Masry, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri) or dead (including Mohammed Atef), though it warns the organization is not yet defeated and is still very determined to continue the fight.

Related Topics:
2005 - Ramzi bin al-Shibh - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - Abu Zubaydah - Saif al Islam el Masry - Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri - Mohammed Atef

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Activity in Iraq

See also Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda

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Osama bin Laden first took interest in Iraq when that country invaded Kuwait in 1990 (giving rise to concerns that the secular, socialist Baathist government of Iraq might next set its sights on Saudi Arabia, homeland of bin Laden and of Islam itself). In a letter he sent to King Fahd, he offered to send an army of mujahideen to defend Saudi http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1551100.stm.

Related Topics:
Iraq - Kuwait - 1990 - Socialist - Baathist - Saudi Arabia - King Fahd

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During the Gulf War, the organization's interests became split between outrage with the intervention of the United Nations in the region and hatred of Saddam Hussein's secular government, as well as expression of concern for the suffering that Islamic people in Iraq were undergoing.

Related Topics:
Gulf War - Saddam Hussein's - Secular

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Bin Laden referred, in his speeches and recorded/written announcements, to Hussein (and the Baathists) as evil, a demon or devil worshipper, calling for his overthrow by the people of Iraq. Organizations such as Ansar al-Islam would be founded in Kurdish northern Iraq with the encouragement of Osama bin Laden.

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Ansar al-Islam -- a reactionary, Taliban-like terrorist organization -- was established by dogmatized Muslim Kurdish fighters who had fought against the Russians in Afghanistan. In presenting the case for the invasion or Iraq to the United Nations the then Secretary of State Colin Powell cited Ansar al-Islam as one of the missing links between Osama bin Laden and Saddam. This viewpoint has been dismissed by most commentators as Ansar al-Islam has a long history of violent actions against the Baathist regime. Indeed the organisation has received support from both Iran and Syria as it offered the dual attraction of providing an irritant to Saddam as well as a buttress against the aspirations of the larger secular Kurdish organisations for a wider Kurdish state.

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During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, al-Qaeda took more formal interest in the region and is known to have been responsible for actively organising and aiding local resistance to the occupying coalition forces and the emerging democracy. During Iraq's historic elections in January 2005 al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for nine suicide blasts in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Related Topics:
2003 invasion of Iraq - 2005 - Baghdad

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Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, founder of Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad and alleged ally of al-Qaeda, formally merged with al-Qaeda on 17th October 2004. The organization started to use the banners of "Al-Qaeda in the Land Between the Two Rivers", instead of old Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad banners. In the merger al-Zarqawi declared loyalty to Osama bin Laden.

Related Topics:
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad - 17th October - 2004 - Osama bin Laden

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Since the US led invasion of Iraq, Ansar al-Islam has undertaken some military operations against coalition forces but counter-insurgency measures taken by the coalition and the larger Kurdish group the PUK, have restricted its effectiveness as a formal fighting force in Iraq although it continues to operate covertly.

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