Bin Laden frustrated with local jihadi groups: OBL letters

Osama bin Laden seemed frustrated with the local jihadi groups that caused sufferings on the Muslims and urged them to abort such attacks and instead focus on the US, documents seized by US forces from his Abbottabad safe house in Pakistan a year ago say.

"He (bin Laden) is at pain advising them to abort domestic attacks that cause Muslim civilian casualties and focus on the United States, 'our desired goal'.

"Bin Ladin's frustration with regional jihadi groups and his seeming inability to exercise control over their actions and public statements is the most compelling story to be told on the basis of the 17 de-classified documents," Combating Terrorism Center (CTS) at West Point said today.

The CTS of the US Military Academy released 64-page 'Letters from Abbottabad: Bin Ladin Sidelined?' based on the 17-declassified documents provided to it by the US government.
These documents consist of electronic letters or draft letters, totaling 175 pages in the original Arabic and 197 pages in the English translation.

The earliest is dated September 2006 and the latest April 2011.
Some of the letters are incomplete and/or are missing their dates, and not all of the letters explicitly attribute their author(s) and/or indicate the addressee.

"On the basis of these documents, the relationship between what has been labeled 'al-Qa'ida Central' (AQC) under the leadership of Bin Ladin is not in sync on the operational level with its so-called 'affiliates'.

"Bin Ladin enjoyed little control over either groups affiliated with al-Qa'ida in name or so-called 'fellow travelers' such as the TTP," the report says.