Washington:
Seeking "utter destruction" of Al Qaeda, the US has chalked out a strategy to disrupt, dismantle and ultimately defeat the terror network and its core leadership in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, where they have found a safe haven.
"We need to dismantle the core of Al Qaeda, its leadership in the tribal regions of Pakistan, and prevent its ability to reestablish a safe haven in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region," John Brennan, Assistant to the US President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, said in his speech at the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.
"We seek nothing less than the utter destruction of this evil that calls itself Al Qaeda," Brennan said yesterday, laying out the Obama administration's plan to battle Al Qaeda in the era after Osama bin Laden.
The Obama administration aims to render the heart of Al Qaeda incapable of launching attacks against the US, America's allies, as well as preventing them from inspiring its affiliates and adherents to do so, he said.
"At the same time, ultimately defeating Al Qaeda also means addressing the serious threat posed by its affiliates and adherents operating outside South Asia. This does not require a global war, but it does require a focus on specific regions, including what we might call the periphery: places like Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, and the Maghreb," he said.
As the Al Qaeda core has weakened under our unyielding pressure, it has looked increasingly to these other groups and individuals to take up its cause, including its goal of striking the United States, he said.