Al Qaeda 2.0
They never went away. And they are planning another 9/11. But bigger.
The Al Qaeda Connection
The eventual revelation that the Southport killer Axel Rudakubana was a terrorist should surprise few people. The most logical explanation for an attack on little girls at a Taylor Swift dance class, when another terror plot against a concert in Vienna was foiled, meant that the rules of Occam's razor left little doubt in sane people's minds that the motivation was potentially Islamist.
Perhaps what may have surprised some was the re-emergence of the name Al Qaeda.
In Austria, the teen behind the Vienna arena plot had posted a video online confessing to the plot, and had been consuming and sharing Islamist propaganda, had pledged allegiance to Islamic State but also held sympathies for Al Qaeda.
The same outfit that over 2 decades ago conducted the most violent, large scale attack against the West, when they hijacked planes and flew them into the Twin Towers in New York. 9/11.
Yes, Osama Bin Laden was captured and killed in 2011. But the story didn't end there. His terrorist organisation lived on, and is believed to now be under the control of his son, Hamza. The same Hamza who the CIA claimed was killed by a US airstrike in 2019.
Al Qaeda 2.0
An explosive report seen by The Mirror suggested that Hamza and his brother Abdullah have regrouped Al Qaeda and set up as many as 30 known terror training camps in Afghanistan, under the watchful eyes of the Taliban.
Unlike Islamic State, one could argue Al Qaeda is more patient and resourceful. More sophisticated. Less raw brutality, gangland style recruitment and lone wolf operations, although not entirely remote from its portfolio, but preparing over decades for shocking global events that stun the entire world.
This time, what they have in store could be even more terrifying…