What Happened To Al-Qaeda?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 5 April 2016
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A deadly al-Qaeda attack on an Ivory Coast resort town in March reminded the world that the terror network once led by Osama bin Laden has not gone away. But in recent years it has been eclipsed and diminished by the so-called Islamic State group. IS has attracted not just global attention, but fighters and funds too. So how depleted is the group which in 2001 triggered America’s “global war on terror”? In other words: what happened to al-Qaeda?
Presenter: Helena Merriman
(Photo: A fighter is seen standing in front of an image of Osama bin Laden, the late head of al-Qaeda, in the town of Rada. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC World Service, this is Helena Merriman with the inquiry. |
| 0:06.0 | This week, what happened to Al-Qaeda? |
| 0:12.0 | On the 13th of March this year a group of men arrived at a beachside bar in the Ivory Coast. |
| 0:17.0 | They sat down and watched its people sun-bathed and swam in the sea. |
| 0:22.0 | Suddenly they flipped over their table. |
| 0:25.0 | In their hands, AK-47s. |
| 0:28.0 | They forced a boy to kneel down and shot him. |
| 0:33.0 | Then they ran towards people on the beach. |
| 0:37.0 | They shot a woman in the chest, this man says. |
| 0:42.0 | I heard them shouting shouting God is great. |
| 0:46.5 | Within an hour they'd killed 18 people. Later a militant group claimed |
| 0:52.2 | responsibility for the attack, not so-called Islamic State, |
| 0:56.5 | the militant newcomers who dominated the headlines over the past two years with their |
| 1:00.4 | gruesome violence. This attack was carried out by Al-Qaeda. |
| 1:05.0 | Remember them? |
| 1:07.0 | Once leaders of the global jihadist movement |
| 1:10.0 | who triggered the American War on Terror. |
| 1:12.0 | Now, they've been eclipsed by IS. They rarely make the news and we want to know why. |
| 1:18.0 | In this inquiry we're going to chart Al-Qaeda's fortunes from the late 90s to today. We'll explain the |
| 1:25.2 | external forces which severely weakened it and we'll hear how a bloody power |
| 1:29.7 | struggle hollowed it out from within. And finally we'll hear how, despite all that, Al-Qaeda |
| 1:37.4 | might be more dangerous than ever. So, our question this week, what happened to Al-Qaeda? |
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