Al-Qaeda gains strength, active in Russia’s North Caucasus
February 19, 2009 by SAF Desk
Moscow, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s special envoy for international cooperation on combating terrorism, Anatoly Safonov today said international terrorist organisation al-Qaeda has not become weaker but gained strength, while hundreds of similar extremist groups have emerged worldwide.
”We said al-Qaeda had been weakened financially and that a change of generations had taken place, that did not result in management loss, but in its perfection, reformation, and today we see that the organisation in some ways is more prepared for the current global situation,” Mr Safonov said.
He added hundreds of similar organisations to al-Qaeda have emerged in the recent years with some of them operating in the troubled Russian North Caucasus.
”There are still active representatives of international terrorist organisations, including al-Qaida, operating in Russia’s North Caucasus,” Mr Safonov noted.
Russian Deputy Interior Minister Arkady Yedelev told reporters earlier that al-Qaida was active in Russia’s Republics of Daghestan and Chechnya where they carry out regular inspections of illegal armed units providing them with weapons and explosives.
Sporadic terrorist attacks and militant clashes are common in the Russian republics of Ingushetia and Daghestan, and in neighbouring Chechnya, in the North Caucasus, although the Kremlin has ended its campaign to fight separatists and terrorists there
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