Washington - Al-Qaeda's Afghanistan leader is laying the groundwork to
re-launch his war-shattered organisation once the United States and
international forces withdraw from the country, as they have warned they
will do without a security agreement from the Afghan government, US
officials say.
Farouq al-Qahtani al-Qatari has been cementing
local ties and bringing in small numbers of experienced militants to
train a new generation of fighters, and US military and intelligence
officials say they have increased drone and jet missile strikes against
him and his followers in the mountainous eastern provinces of Kunar and
Nuristan.
The objective is to keep him from restarting the large
training camps that once drew hundreds of followers before the US-led
war began.
The officials say the counterterrorism campaign - a
key reason the Obama administration agreed to keep any troops in
Afghanistan after 2014 - could be jeopardised by the possibility of a
total pullout.
House Intelligence Committee Chairperson Mike
Rogers said the number of al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan has risen but
is not much higher than the several hundred or so the US has identified
in the past.
"I think most are waiting for the US to fully pull out by 2014," he said.
Drone strikes
The
administration would like to leave up to 10 000 troops in Afghanistan
after combat operations end on 31 December, to continue training Afghan
forces and conduct counterterrorism missions.
But without the
agreement that would authorise international forces to stay in
Afghanistan, President Barack Obama has threatened to pull all troops
out, and Nato forces would follow suit.
After talking to Afghan
President Hamid Karzai this week, Obama ordered the Pentagon to begin
planning for the so-called zero option.
US military and
intelligence officials say unless they can continue to fly drones and
jets from at least one air base in Afghanistan - either Bagram in the
north or Jalalabad in the east al-Qahtani and his followers could
eventually plan new attacks against US targets, although experts do not
consider him one of the most dangerous al-Qaeda leaders.
The
officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not
authorised to discuss publicly the secret counterterrorism campaign or
intelligence.
Administration officials have hoped that the US
could eventually wind down counterterrorism operations like drone
strikes in the region after reducing the al-Qaeda network, leaving local
forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan to control the remnants.
But
al-Qaeda is not weakened enough yet, and US officials have testified
that the inexperienced Afghan forces aren't ready to take over the task
unaided.
National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden
said this week that "as the possibility of a full withdrawal has grown
in Afghanistan," the administration was "undertaking a methodical review
of any US capabilities that may be affected and developing strategies
to mitigate impacts".
"The United States will take the steps necessary to combat terrorism and protect our interests," she added.
Country will disintegrate
Some
administration officials have said al-Qaeda in Afghanistan is less of a
threat than when the war began, estimated to be as many as several
hundred forced to shelter in the remotest part of the country.
They
say al-Qahtani is so remote, he is nearly irrelevant to the larger
al-Qaeda movement. Two US intelligence officials say his group has been
so cut off that it has been forced to rely on the Taliban for funding
and weapons at times, where it used to be the other way around.
Those officials are far more concerned about al-Qaeda's new offshoots fighting in the Syrian civil war.
"It's
really hard to get to New York City from northern Kunar or southern
Nuristan" where al-Qahtani is based, said Douglas Ollivant, a former
senior US military adviser in eastern Afghanistan, now with the New
American Foundation.
"We do want to keep them bottled up there,"
but he said that's something Afghan forces can do on their own. "The
Afghan forces are not capable of going up there and hunting them, but
they are capable of containing them," the former US military officer
said.
Other experts see al-Qahtani and his kind as the main reason to push for at least a minimal security force in Afghanistan.
"There's
an influx of Jihadist groups - not massive - now active in
Afghanistan," said Seth Jones of the Washington-based Rand Corporation,
who once worked for US Special Operations Command in Afghanistan.
He
listed the most dangerous as al-Qaeda; the Pakistan Taliban;
Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks; and
Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, which has strong links to al-Qaeda.
"Not having US forces in Afghanistan would embolden these groups and be counterproductive for US national security," he said.
Those
tracking al-Qahtani say he has survived by following some of the same
rules that helped Osama bin Laden avoid capture for so many years: He
stays off cellphones and radios to hide from spy satellites and airborne
radars, instead using couriers or face-to-face meetings, and he stays
on the move.
When he travels to populated areas, he stays among women and children, which he knows the US will avoid striking.
The
local tribesmen do not aid the US effort, nor does the barren,
mountainous terrain where incoming raiders are visible for miles.
"When
helicopters went in, you can hear the whistles go up," from the
villages, echoing across the valleys and sending militants fleeing for
cover, one of the US military officials said.
The officials say
US special operators have all but given up capturing al-Qahtani and have
traded fruitless and dangerous helicopter-borne raids for air strikes
by drone and jet, averaging three to five a week.
To their knowledge, they have never come close to striking him.
The reports give added ammunition to a comprehensive intelligence analysis on Afghanistan completed in December.
The
report predicted the country will largely disintegrate along ethnic
lines after the US departs, with the central government controlling
Kabul and a few other key cities.
