Fears grow that al-Qa'ida may be stronger than ever

Somewhere in the mountains of Tora Bora the hydra's head may have been cut off.

But 12 months after the attacks on the World Trade Centre it is clear that whether Osama bin Laden is alive or dead does not really matter. Investigators say his al-Qa'ida organisation, though disrupted, has not been wiped out and is preparing to launch more terror attacks. As with the mythical beast, the monster may now be even stronger.

The most visible sign of al-Qa'ida's continued murderous capabilities came in April when 19 people, including 14 German tourists, were killed in a bombing at a Tunisian synagogue. Two months later, al-Qa'ida claimed responsibility with its spokesman, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, claiming 98 per cent of the al-Qa'ida leadership, including Mr bin Laden, were still alive. "As long as America insists on its unjust and biased policy towards Muslims ... around the world, then ... we will continue to hit it anywhere in the world," he said.

Part of the problem is that the military operation in Afghanistan failed to kill or capture the vast bulk of the al-Qa'ida leadership or its members – now believed to be active in up to 60 countries. The US says it has either killed or seized 12 al-Qa'ida leaders since last September, including, Mr bin Laden's military commander, Mohammed Atef, killed by an air strike in November, and two senior operational aides, Abu Zubair al-Haili, aka "The Bear", and Abu Zubeida, who are both in US custody.

But most remain at large, having fled Afghanistan. The five most important havens are believed to be along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, where several hundred fighters are based, Yemen, the Pankisi Gorge in Georgia, northern Iraq and Iran, where two key al-Qa'ida leaders, Saif al-Adel and Mahfouz Ould Walid, aka Abu Hafs the Mauritanian, are in hiding. Yesterday it was reported that al-Qa'ida is again regrouping inside Afghanistan.

Counter-terrorism officials say the most wanted al-Qa'ida members are Mr bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, his financial chief, Shaikh Saiid al-Sharif, and his operational planner, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who is blamed for the attacks on the Tunisian synagogue. Recently, Mr Mohammed and an al-Qa'ida colleague, Ramzi Bisalshibh, were interviewed in Pakistan by the Qatari television station al-Jazeera for a programme broadcast this week.

Even in America there could be hundreds of al-Qa'ida sympathisers or operatives. Senator Richard Shelby, the vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in July: "There are a lot of potential or maybe active al-Qa'ida agents in the US... They don't have ... the central command they did with Osama bin Laden, but they're well-trained, and ... dangerous."

What is also clear is that much of al-Qa'ida's wealth remains untouched. Two weeks ago the Swiss attorney general said most of the group's wealth has been converted into gold and diamonds and was beyond the reach of banks.

A recent report by Jane's Defence Group suggests al-Qa'ida may actually be stronger now than it was on 11 September 2001, partly because it has been able to build and retain sympathy in much of the Islamic world. "The ousting of the Taliban has certainly ended the training of al-Qa'ida's foot-soldiers in Afghanistan ... [but] what has not been stopped is the group's ability to raise funds or operate its international network of sleeper cells and safe houses," it said.

* Mohammed Atta, the ringleader of the 11 September hijackers, met personally with Mr bin Laden to discuss the attacks on America, The New York Times revealed yesterday. The disclosure is the clearest evidence yet that Mr bin Laden was direct involved in the plot.