Barack Obama’s top counter-terrorism aide John Brennan said that the US drone campaign had left the terror group weakened and unable to replace its leaders.
Brennan said that Bin Laden had lamented the “disaster after disaster” that had hit Al Qaeda amid the US onslaught, leading him to consider changing his organisation’s name to claw back its reputation.
Bin Laden’s frustration at the demise of his group was shown in documents seized from his Pakistan compound by the US commandos who killed him a year ago, Brennan said.
He added that Al Qaeda was now a “shadow” of its former self and would soon be “no longer relevant”.
“Under intense pressure in the tribal regions of Pakistan, they have fewer places to train and groom the next generation of operatives, they’re struggling to attract new recruits,” he added in a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars.
“Al-Qaeda has been left with just a handful of capable leaders and operatives, and with continued pressure is on the path to its destruction.
“And for the first time since this fight began, we can look ahead and envision a world in which the Al-Qaeda core is simply no longer relevant.”
Picture: Getty
