Al-Qaeda morphs into new movement since 9/11

THE al-Qaeda that attacked the United States on 9/11 is not the same al-Qaeda the US fights today. Once based in Afghanistan with a strong leader who ordered attacks on Western capitals, it has become a diffuse movement with offshoots that threaten nations across the Muslim world.

Al-Qaeda’s leadership has been driven out of its former safe haven in Afghanistan and weakened by US drone attacks in neighboring Pakistan. It has taken advantage of chaos created by the Arab Spring revolutions that began in 2011 and joined insurgencies that control territory across North Africa and the Middle East — in Nigeria, Mali, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Syria and Iraq.