Why does al qaeda kill

Bin Laden married for the first time at age 17, to a Syrian cousin, Najwa. Reportedly walked with a cane and suffered from kidney disease. He remains there for a decade, using construction equipment from his family's business to help the Muslim guerrilla forces build shelters, tunnels and roads through the rugged Afghan mountains, and at times taking part in battle.

Bin Laden is reportedly outraged at their presence, and soon begins to target the United States for its presence near the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina. December - US forces land in Somalia , spearheading a UN-authorized humanitarian plan to bring in famine relief supplies. Part of their challenge is disarming the various warlords who control the country. Prosecutors charge that bin Laden threw himself into the midst of this conflict, sending some of his followers to Somalia to train the warlords to fight the US troops.

Six Muslim radicals, who US officials suspect have links to bin Laden, are eventually convicted for the bombing. Although bin Laden is named as a possible unindicted co-conspirator, investigators do not recover conclusive evidence that the al Qaeda leader orchestrated the attack. October - Eighteen US servicemen, part of a humanitarian mission to Somalia, die in an ambush perpetrated by militants who reportedly trained with al Qaeda.

His family disowns him. He moves with his children and wives to Afghanistan, where he receives harbor from the Taliban. The United States indicts bin Laden on charges of training the people involved in the attack that killed 18 US servicemen in Somalia.

It wants to occupy our countries, steal our resources, impose on us agents to rule us. February - According to court documents, bin Laden orders the militarization of the East African cell of al Qaeda, a move that culminates in the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on August 7, , eight years to the day after US troops landed in the Saudi kingdom.

May 29, - Bin Laden issues a statement entitled "The Nuclear Bomb of Islam," under the banner of the "International Islamic Front for Fighting the Jews and Crusaders," in which he states that "it is the duty of Muslims to prepare as much force as possible to terrorize the enemies of God.

November - Is indicted by the United States on counts of murder for the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Download the France 24 app. The content you requested does not exist or is not available anymore. ON TV. On social media. It is commanded, to a degree, by Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Front was formed to coordinate activities through a council shura led by bin Laden. The U. Al Qaeda has also expanded by aligning itself with regional groups, including Al Qaeda in Iraq, whose leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most well-known insurgent commander in Iraq, swore allegiance to bin Laden.

Al Qaeda also relies on other Islamic militants whose talents it can exploit. Instead, they were recruited into Al Qaeda to fill a specific role.

The alliance was mutually beneficial since these operatives felt that Al Qaeda was best suited to help them realize their radical ideology and schemes. Outside the circle of Al Qaeda activists and affiliated organizations there are terrorist individuals, cells and ad hoc organizations that may have little direct contact with Al Qaeda operatives but nevertheless carry out attacks in its name. For example, based on information currently available, the attacks on resort towns in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt Taba in October and Sharm el Sheik in July were planned and carried out primarily by locally organized Bedouins with no apparent help from the outside.

Yet an organization claiming to be affiliated with Al Qaeda, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades in Syria and Egypt, took responsibility for the attacks, which employed tactics characteristic of Al Qaeda. More importantly, the Sinai attacks, as well as a subsequent Al Qaeda missile attack on American warships in nearby Aqaba, Jordan, have in effect opened a new front in the global Jihad movement dominated by Al Qaeda. The extent to which it may control and direct the various affiliated, or Al Qaeda-inspired, organizations around the world is unclear.

Some view Al Qaeda more as a movement than an organization, and bin Laden as a source of incitement for the international jihad movement, rather than its commander. But evidence suggests that despite official assessments by the U. Mejjati apparently also directed a May attack in Casablanca, Morocco, initially thought to be entirely the work of a local group.

He was killed in a gun battle with Saudi security in March , but speculations regarding other terrorist operations he might have put in motion abound, including a possible plan for an attack on U. Similarly, the London bombings on July 7, , and a second wave of bombs, which did not detonate, were initially thought to be the work of homegrown radicals with no substantial outside help, or at least no Al Qaeda connection.

However, evidence suggests that the London bombers were part of an international network connected to Al Qaeda operatives who were contracted by by the top Al Qaeda leadership. Also, based on information obtained by British security agency, MI5 from a terrorist caught in Pakistan, it appears that an Al Qaeda-trained bomb-maker, Azhari bin Husin, helped make the explosives used in the London attacks.

Husin, killed by Indonesian forces in November , was involved in a number of Al Qaeda related attacks around the world. The central Al Qaeda leadership, however, does not have the capability to wage this war by itself; rather, it depends on local affiliates and allies to strike at U. This strategy includes not just terror attacks on U. After their short-term goals are realized and local leaders begin to fall, Al Qaeda seeks to establish Islamic rule in their place.

Realizing that not all regimes will fall at the same time, it advocates immediately replacing fallen regimes with a religious autocracy similar to the former Taliban rule in Afghanistan. In most cases, these governments will be formed by local Al Qaeda affiliates in conjunction with local leaders who join the Al Qaeda cause.

These governments will then be used as foundations for expanding jihadi influence and rule around the region. Ultimately, Al Qaeda hopes join all of these separate Islamic governments to resurrect the Islamic empire, known as a caliphate, that would rule all Muslim lands and fight to expand them. Al Qaeda employs a number of different terrorist tactics, including suicide bombing, car bombing, roadside bombing, hijackings and paramilitary operations against civilian and military targets.

In this type of attack, a number of suicide bombers, generally two to five, coordinate their attacks to strike a number of targets at roughly the same time. This tactic not only causes significantly more damage and casualties than a single bomb, it also creates a greater sense of panic among victims. Al Qaeda is also adept at using the media to further its goals. Its attacks are constantly shown on news channels around the world and its taped messages are broadcast to millions of listeners.

Additionally, Al Qaeda received funding from charities and many for-profit organizations and individuals have been accused of providing funds to the organization. In the months after the September 11th terrorist attacks, the U. Other nations, too, moved to shut down sources of Al Qaeda funding or money laundering, disrupting to an unknown extent the pre-September 11 funding network.

However, Al Qaeda does not need massive amounts of money to survive. After the U. The now-dispersed leadership began relying more heavily on the Internet to communicate to its members and the public.

Soon, Al Qaeda shifted many of its activities to cyberspace. The Internet compensated for the loss of a secure base and allowed Al Qaeda terrorists to disseminate information and communicate with each other in relative safety. Alone, in your home or with a group of your brothers, you too can begin to execute the training program. The program also includes video footage of terrorist attacks. As the value of attacking the United States declines, al-Qaeda is grappling with developing an alternative strategy to bring a unity of action and purpose to its branches.

However, the group suffers from a dearth of strategic thinkers able to present a strategy befitting the new era. After the failure of its United States first focus and its rejection of the alternative path of an Islamic State- style caliphate, it remains unclear how al-Qaeda envisions success or even what it actually hopes to achieve.

But on the whole, geopolitical conditions are more conducive for localized jihadist efforts, largely at the expense of transnational movements. More likely, branches could be in a better position to break with this al-Qaeda core if they desired to do so.

Instead of focusing on external operations against the West, al-Qaeda will continue a trend that began following the advent of the Arab Spring in — embedding in local insurgencies and consolidating support among tribes and clans. Al-Qaeda is here to stay, but it looks and acts differently than the organization it once was under Osama bin Laden. This means that Washington should begin to reassess how it treats the threat of al-Qaeda.

As evidenced by the changing orientation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in Syria, dynamics can and do change. The threat posed by branches is anchored in local conditions, grievances, and particular ethnic compositions. Barak Mendelsohn is an associate professor at Haverford College and the author of Jihadism Constrained.

Colin P.