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4.2.1 History of al-Qaida |
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Al-Qaida evolved from the Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK), a mujahedeen resistance organization fighting the Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Osama bin Laden was a founding member of the MAK along with the Palestinian militant Abdullah Azzam. The role of the MAK was to channel funds from a variety of sources into training mujahedeen from around the world in guerrilla combat.
Towards the end of the Soviet occupation, many mujahedeen wanted to broaden their operations to participate in Islamist struggles in other parts of the world. A number of overlapping and interrelated organisations were formed to further those aspirations. After Azzam was assassinated in 1989, the MAK split into various fractions. One of these was al-Qaida. Bin Laden wished to extend the conflict to non-military operations in other parts of the world. Moving from MAK to al-Qaida involved training the members in terrorist tactics.
After the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia, while al-Qaida continued its training operations in Afghanistan. During the Gulf War he criticised the Saudi Government for harboring American troops on Saudi soil and, as a result, he was obliged to leave Saudi Arabia. In 1991, Sudan's National Islamic Front, an Islamist group which had recently gained power, invited al-Qaida to move his operations to their country. For several years, al-Qaida ran several businesses in Sudan. The organisation had also a number of camps where they trained would-be terrorists in the use of firearms and explosives.
In 1996 al-Qaida was expelled from Sudan after it was accused of participating in the 1994 attempted assassination of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. An Afghan warlords invited al-Qaida to come back to Afghanistan. There, bin Laden quickly established ties with the Taliban group led by Mohammed Omar. By providing funds and weapons he helped the group to rise to power. Thereafter al-Qaida enjoyed the Taliban's protection, and a measure of legitimacy as part of their Ministry of Defense. Thousands of militant Muslims from around the world received military-style training in al-Qaida's camps.
In February 1998 al-Qaida, through its leaders bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad issued, a 'fatwa' under the cover of "the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders" saying that "to kill Americans and their allies, civilians and military, is an individual duty of every Muslim." The embassy bombings in East Africa, which resulted in upwards of 300 deaths, was al-Qaida's first major terrorist action.
Following the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack -blamed on al-Qaida- the United States invaded Afghanistan, and deposed the Taliban government for harboring al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden. Battles between the US and remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaida forces still go on in 5. As a result of this invasion the al-Qaida training camps were destroyed, and much of its operating structures were disrupted if not destroyed.
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