JOIN USIntelligence officials said yesterday that the military strikes have reduced al-Qaida's core leadership to only a handful of men and diminished its ability to train fighters. This, they said, has forced al-Qaida to turn to its global affiliates for survival
The killings of Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in Somalia, Noordin Muhammed Top in Indonesia and Baitullah Mehsud in Pakistan all in recent weeks have been the latest blow.
A US counter terrorism official, said the deaths deal "a major near-term blow to their respective militant groups."
Since the start of the year, American forces have stepped up strikes against militants in terrorist hubs, including Pakistan and Somalia. US National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair said this week that such strikes have been possible because of a greater understanding of al-Qaida.
British intelligence agents have joined the United States in stepping up counter terrorism measures and adding agents, leading to fewer fully developed terrorist plots being uncovered in Britain.
Still, al-Qaida's top leaders Osama bin Laden and his No 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri remain free, and terrorist bombings continue to roil countries from Asia to Africa as al-Qaida and the Taliban establish links with satellite groups.
This week, suicide bombers in Somalia killed 21 people, including 17 peacekeepers, in twin attacks at an African Union base in Mogadishu.
The attacks were said to be in retaliation for the US commando raid Monday in southern Somalia that killed Nabhan the leader of the powerful Islamist group Al-Shabab, which was using foreign fighters to help al-Qaida expand deeper into the Horn of Africa.
Nabhan was one of the founders of al-Shabab, a group that didn't exist a decade ago.
Nabhan, a Kenyan with Yemeni roots who had years of strategic and weapons training was being used to build alliances. He was also key in procuring weapons and funds, and training recruits, according to Rohan Gunaratna, author of "Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror."
His death, along with the killing of reputed Shabaab commander Aden Hashi Ayro in Somalia last year, highlights al-Qaida's challenge in expanding in Africa.
Strikes against militant leaders in Pakistan have been particularly important for Britain. About 75 percent of the terrorist plots against the UK have roots in Pakistan.
A plot to down at least seven trans-Atlantic airliners in 2006 was thwarted partially because counter terrorism officials intercepted coded e-mails between a British terror cell and their handlers in Pakistan, prosecutors said during a trial where three men were convicted in the plot.
Mehsud, who underwent extensive training in Afghanistan before 9/11, acted as a unifying force among Taliban factions.
In addition to his death, Ilyas Kashmiri an al-Qaida operations chief in northwest Pakistan was also believed to have been killed in North Waziristan by missiles fired by US drones. Kashmiri was accused of playing a role in the failed assassination attempts against former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.
A Pakistani intelligence official, said it appeared many factions were starting to fight among themselves for leadership, and ranks are turning on each other because they are suspicious and the finances are slowing.
Al-Qaida's capacity to communicate, instigate, organize, commission and execute spectacular terrorist attacks has been severely diminished in the past two years, particularly because of successful drone attacks in Pakistan, according to Jason Burke, author of "Al-Qaida: The True Story of Radical Islam."
Mehsud's death in Pakistan last month represented a similar blow. Mehsud was the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan.