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Petraeus: Al Qaeda weakened by bin Laden death

9 May 2011 | Afghanistan  By Tristan Nichols 
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The US military commander in Afghanistan says the killing of Osama bin Laden may weaken al Qaeda's influence on the Afghan Taliban.

But General David Petraeus warned that Afghanistan is still a potential refuge for international terror groups, and al Qaeda is just one of those.

He also warned that the April 29 US raid that killed the al Qaeda leader in his Pakistani compound did not spell the end of the Nato battle in Afghanistan.

The mission began one month after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington with the aim of wiping out al Qaeda and bin Laden.

Nato officials have said they do not intend to speed up their withdrawal just because al Qaeda's leader is gone, but the military feels it may bring the Taliban closer to negotiations with the Afghan government.

Gen Petraeus said the strong link between al Qaeda and the Taliban was personal, not organisational.

"The deal between the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda was between Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden, not the organisations," he said as he visited US troops in eastern Afghanistan.

Gen Petraeus said bin Laden's death may make it easier for the Taleban to renounce al Qaeda, a condition for reconciliation talks set by Nato and the Afghan government.

Bin Laden's demise might weaken al Qaeda from within, Gen Petraeus said, because bin Laden's personality and aura were a key for raising money for the world jihad group, and without him, the group's worldwide network might fall apart under his successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

"Ayman al-Zawahiri is no Osama bin Laden," Gen Petraeus said.

He warned that al Qaeda is only one of a number of international terrorist organisations that would be eager to flood into an unstable Afghanistan if Nato forces left.

"The key is making sure there are no safe havens for those transnational terrorist groups in Afghanistan," Gen Petraeus said.

He estimated that between 50 and 100 al Qaeda fighters move back and forth in eastern Afghanistan.