Al-Qaeda main threat to Europe

BRUSSELS: As the United States prepares to unveil a new strategy to defeat Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, the EU’s counter-terrorism czar warned Monday that the network still poses the main security threat to Europe.

“It remains a very serious problem in this part of the world,” EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove told reporters in Brussels, on the sidelines of talks between EU interior ministers. “It’s the main threat.”

“We have to adopt multi-pronged measures. First, keep the pressure on Afghanistan … and we need to work a lot on Pakistan,” he said, expressing support for the US change in strategy.

On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama is expected to announce the dispatch of more than 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan, as Washington shifts to a counter-insurgency approach to seize the initiative from the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and their allies.

The move will focus on protecting Afghan civilians, mostly in towns and cities, rather than hunting down fighters, with the aim of winning the confidence of the people and turning them against the extremists.

However European nations lack the means and the will to match the US effort in part because they feel less threatened by Al-Qaeda, which carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks, analysts say.

“We should keep on the pressure, which has so far been successful,” de Kerchove said.

He said that US drone attacks on the Afghan-Pakistan border had killed probably a dozen of the top 20 Al-Qaeda fighters, but that a hard core of around 300 militants were still operational.

He noted that Taliban leader “Mullah Omar is distancing himself more than before from the Al-Qaeda core because his goal is to get power in Afghanistan, and the support of the Muslim world.”

“If he is supporting too much the Al-Qaeda core, he will lose support in part of the Middle East, in Saudi Arabia,” said de Kerchove.

He said Al-Qaeda relies on strong cooperation with other groups.

The Muslim fundamentalist Taliban militia was ousted from power by a US-led coalition in late 2001, after the attacks on New York and Washington, for harbouring Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.