ISLAMABAD - With the Afghan war entering its 10th year, completely undeterred by the American drone strikes in the Pakistani tribal region, al-Qaeda is putting the final touches to plans to recruit, train and launch Western Caucasians in their countries; the aim is to spread the flames of the South Asian war theater to the West.
Al-Qaeda began planning the operation in 2002, after the fall in late 2001 of the Taliban in Afghanistan, where the group had been given sanctuary. Al-Qaeda had regrouped in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area on the border with Afghanistan, and used this base to developed propaganda media structures to recruit in the West. (See The legacy of Nek Mohammed Asia Times Online, July 20, 2004.)
Stubborn trickle of Western jihadists head to Pakistan
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - A small but determined band of Western militants are trickling into Pakistan’s northwest for training in Taliban and Al-Qaeda enclaves, officials say.
Western diplomats in Islamabad, intelligence officials and Pakistani security officials say dozens of Westerners are among the thousands of foreign militants hiding out in the remote lawless border with Afghanistan.
Despite their relatively small number, a host of bombings and aborted attacks in Western cities in recent years linked to Pakistan’s tribal areas shows that the threat posed by these migrating militants is nevertheless real.
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