By DPA
Madrid : Al Qaeda currently counts with a “considerable” operative capacity, with its main base in the frontier area between Pakistan and Afghanistan, a Spanish expert said Wednesday.
The common idea that Al Qaeda had become more of an ideology than an organization was false, political science professor Fernando Reinares wrote in an article published by the daily El Pais.
After the loss of its Afghan power base and arrests or killings of many of its members, Al Qaeda had rebuilt its organisation, which was now “relatively robust,” according to Reinares.
The main power base located in the frontier area between Pakistan and Afghanistan housed Osama bin Laden, other leaders and hundreds of members, the professor wrote.
Al Qaeda also has cells and a network of intermediaries and collaborators in Asia, the Middle East, the Gulf region, eastern Africa and northern Caucasus.
Al Qaeda also operates by forming alliances with radical groups in the Arabian Peninsula, northern Africa and Iraq, participating directly in organizing attacks, the Spanish expert added.