Asia · updated 38m ago · 2 min read
Al-Qaeda Regroups In Afghanistan, Training Camps Expand 25 Years After 9/11
Al-Qaeda operates training camps again in Afghanistan, 25 years after 9/11. U.S. counterterrorism efforts failed to eradicate their training camps.
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The Washington Post
“al-Qaeda is again operating training camps in Afghanistan, according to U.S. and Western intelligence officials”Read the original ↗
The National Desk and the Washington Post both focus on al-Qaeda in Afghanistan; other outlets pivot to memorials, families, and forensic updates.
Al-Qaeda training camps return
A quarter-century after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, al-Qaeda is again operating training camps in Afghanistan, according to U.S. and Western intelligence officials and a United Nations organization responsible for monitoring terror networks.
“al-Qaeda is again operating training camps in Afghanistan”
The Washington Post says al-Qaeda’s plans for the Sept. T11 attacks took root in “dusty, mud-walled compounds in Afghanistan that served for years as terrorist training camps.”
The National Desk frames the threat as a post-9/11 shift, saying former CIA targeting officer Sarah Adams warned that the group’s “only about eight camps in Afghanistan” in 2001 is “exploding now.”
Adams also said al-Qaeda’s next generation is operating from Afghanistan, and she pointed to regional affiliates “right there in Yemen, North Africa,” after having “a huge base in Iraq for a while.”
Warnings on intelligence gaps
Adams told The National News Desk that after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, “we left all those training facilities behind,” which she described as “the most state-of-the-art facilities in the world.”
She said the pullback affected intelligence collection, warning, “Now that we pulled back, we lost that Intel collection,” and she added that the U.S. shift meant “we are now going to be fighting it here.”
In the same conversation, Adams argued that the threat from Afghanistan remains central, saying, “But really, the threats emanating again from Afghanistan and we can’t lose sight of that.”
She also raised accountability concerns about the Sept. 11 plotters, saying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed “hasn’t been brought to justice,” and she linked the broader security challenge to support networks that could enable future attacks.
Aftershocks across 9/11 memory
While U.S. and Western officials discuss al-Qaeda’s renewed training-camp presence in Afghanistan, other coverage in the sources keeps returning to the human and institutional aftermath of Sept. 11 across the United States.
“Our life was completely changed on 9/11.”
KATV reported that Gold Star widow Kimberly Hazelgrove, whose husband Chief Warrant Officer Brian Hazelgrove was killed while serving in Iraq in 2004, said, “Our life was completely changed on 9/11.”
Hazelgrove also told The National News Desk that “We are going to carry grief throughout our lives,” and she emphasized that support for surviving spouses and children continues as “Our benefits and resources that we can access are also going to change.”
In parallel, KRCG said officials are still working to identify the remains of 1,099 victims 25 years after al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked two planes and flew them into the Twin Towers on Sept. K11, 2001, and it cited a FIGG identification of the 1,654th victim last month.