Al-Qaeda In Pakistan: Making The Local Global

Today's Comment Is Free has a useful overview piece by Jason Burke which considers the involvement of al-Qaeda in conflict-strewn areas of Pakistan. As always it's a complicated relationship, with al-Qaeda's 'global' jihadis tapping in to local militancy and vice versa. Among Burke's findings (apparently sourced from insiders in the Pakistani intelligence community):

• Al-Qaeda may have operational links with Lashkar-e-Taiba (of the November Mumbai attacks) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (of the Sri Lanka cricket attack in March).


• Relationships between al-Qaeda and Pakistani Taliban are more personal in nature- fighting in the region is less about al-Qaeda-style global jihad and more about the "disintegration of local tribal social hierarchies and values in recent decades, the radicalising effect of Western operations in Afghanistan, generalised mobilisation in much of the Islamic world, collateral damage resulting from US drone strikes and a very local dynamic pitting one valley and one tribe against another."


• Foreign 'al-Qaeda' militants are becoming involved so they can utilise the chaotic situation to regroup and- at least in theory- work to further their own more global aims.

The whole article is worth a read.