Al-Qaeda is an organisation of Islamic militants that has declared “holy war” on Americans, Jews and their allies.
It was founded in 1988 by Osama Bin Laden.  Al-Qaeda claims to be avenging wrongs committed by Christians and Jews against Muslims over the ages.
It seeks to re-shape the Muslim world, replacing secular states with a single Islamic political leadership. It also wants to drive Americans and other non-Muslims from Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam’s holiest sites. Al-Qaeda draws support from people who see the US’s military action in Iraq and Afghanistan, and its support for Israel, as a war against Islam itself. After al-Qaeda’s September 11, 2001, attacks on America, the United States launched a war in Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaeda’s bases there and overthrow the Taliban, the country’s Muslim fundamentalist rulers who harbored bin Laden and his followers. “Al-Qaeda” is Arabic for “the base.” According to a 1998 federal indictment, Al-Qaeda is administered by a council that “discussed and approved major undertakings, including terrorist operations.” At the top is bin Laden. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the head of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, is thought to be bin Laden’s top lieutenant and al-Qaeda’s ideological adviser. The Jordanian radical Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has directed a series of deadly terror attacks in Iraq—including the beheadings of kidnapped foreigner—is also associated with al-Qaeda. Zarqawi pledged his allegiance to bin Laden in October 2004, and bin Laden has praised Zarqawi as “the prince of al Qaeda in Iraq.” At least one senior al-Qaeda commander, Muhammad Atef, died in the U.S. air strikes in Afghanistan, and another top lieutenant, Abu Zubaydah, was captured in Pakistan in March 2002. In March 2003, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and al-Qaeda’s treasurer, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, were also captured in Pakistan.There is no single headquarters. From 1991 to 1996, al-Qaeda worked out of Pakistan along the Afghan border, or inside Pakistani cities. Al-Qaeda has autonomous underground cells in some 100 countries, including the United States, officials say. Law enforcement has broken up al-Qaeda cells in the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Albania, Uganda, and elsewhere.

The Al-Qaeda is connected to other terrorist organizations some of which are:

1. Egyptian Islamic Jihad
2. The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group
3. Islamic Army of Aden (Yemen)
4. Jama’at al-Tawhid wal Jihad (Iraq)
5. Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad (Kashmir)
6. Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
7. Salafist Group for Call and Combat and the Armed Islamic Group (Algeria)
8. Abu Sayyaf Group (Malaysia, Philippines)
9. Jemaah Islamiya (Southeast Asia)

These groups share al-Qaeda’s Sunni Muslim fundamentalist views. Some terror experts theorize that al-Qaeda, after the loss of its Afghanistan base, may be increasingly reliant on sympathetic affiliates to carry out its agenda. Intelligence officials and terrorism experts also say that al-Qaeda has stepped up its cooperation on logistics and training with Hezbollah, a radical, Iran-backed Lebanese militia drawn from the minority Shiite strain of Islam.

Al-Qaeda has targeted American and other Western interests as well as Jewish targets and Muslim governments it sees as corrupt or impious—above all, the Saudi monarchy. Al-Qaeda linked attacks include:

1. The March 2004 bomb attacks on Madrid commuter trains, which killed nearly 200 people and left more than 1,800 injured.
2. The May 2003 car bomb attacks on three residential compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
3. The November 2002 car bomb attack and a failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli jetliner with shoulder-fired missiles, both in Mombasa, Kenya.
4. The October 2002 attack on a French tanker off the coast of Yemen.
   Several spring 2002 bombings in Pakistan.
5. The April 2002 explosion of a fuel tanker outside a synagogue in Tunisia.
6. The September 11, 2001, hijacking attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
7. The October 2000 U.S.S. Cole bombing.
8. The August 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar er Salaam, Tanzania.
9. Al-Qaeda is suspected of carrying out or directing sympathetic groups to carry out the May 2003 suicide attacks on Western interests in Casablanca, Morocco; the October 2002 nightclub bombing in Bali, Indonesia; and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Plots linked to al-Qaeda that were disrupted or prevented include: a 2001 attempt by Richard Reid to explode a shoe bomb on a transatlantic flight; a 1999 plot to set off a bomb at Los Angeles International Airport; a 1995 plan to blow up 12 transpacific flights of U.S. commercial airliners; a 1995 plan to kill President Bill Clinton on a visit to the Philippines; and a 1994 plot to kill Pope John Paul II during a visit to Manila.

It is blamed for thousands of deaths in the 11 September attacks on the US and other attacks around the world.
It is led by Osama Bin Laden, a millionaire Saudi dissident stripped of his citizenship in 1991.

Since the 11 September 2001 attacks, a number of video tapes, audio recordings, faxes and other statements have been attributed to Osama Bin Laden.
But although the US has hunted the al-Qaeda leader using satellite tracking systems and sophisticated spying systems, Bin Laden remains at large.
He is widely believed to be hiding in the remote tribal region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border with his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.
The US-led war in Afghanistan in 2001 toppled the Taleban regime which had given Osama Bin Laden sanctuary.
He is thought to have fled to an area near the Pakistan border. Experts believe he is alive but unwell.

Some high-ranking al-Qaeda figures have been killed and others captured as part of the US-led “war on terror”.
Others are still at large. They include Bin Laden’s chief strategist, Ayman al-Zawahri, an Egyptian now thought to be in operational control of al-Qaeda.
 

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