[[Image:al_qaeda.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Osama bin Laden with Al-Qaeda members]]
'''Al-Qaeda''' ([[Arabic]]: القاعدة, Translation: ''the base'') is an international [[Jihadism|Jihadist]] [[terrorism|terrorist]] organization founded in 1988, in the late 1980s to fight the [[Red Army]] city of the [[Soviet Union]] in [[Afghanistan]]Peshawar, during the 1980–89 Soviet Invasion of AfghanistanPakistan. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Osama bin Bin Ladin and his comrades had their own sources of support and training, and they received little or no assistance from the United States,<ref>9/11 Commission Report, [http://www.gpoaccess.gov/911/pdf/sec2.pdf ''The Foundation of the New Terrorism''], pg. 56.</ref><ref>In his memoir, Ayman al-Zawahiri contemptuously rejects the claim that the Arab mujahideen were financed (even “one penny”) or trained by the United States. See Zawahiri, “Knights Under the Prophet’s Banner,” Al Sharq al Awsat, Dec. 2, 2001. CIA officials involved in aiding the Afghan resistance regard Bin Ladin and his “Arab Afghans” as having been militarily insignificant in the war and recall having little to do with him. Gary Schroen interview (Mar. 3, 2003).</ref> which only provided funding to indigenous Afghan ''mujaheddin'', which al-Qaeda was not. It was led by [[Osama Bin Laden]] until he was killed by Navy SEALs and CIA operatives on May 2, 2011. It is predominantly composed of fanatical [[Sunni]] [[Islam|Muslim]]s. [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]], former leader of the [[Egypt]]ian terrorist group called the [[Muslim Brotherhood|Islamic Brotherhood]], now leads Al Qaeda since Bin Laden's death. Zawahiri has increasingly become the spokesperson for the terrorist network.
By 2018, Al Qaeda remained a major global terror threat.<ref>Mora, Edwin (October 6, 2018). [https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2018/10/06/al-qaeda-remains-top-global-jihadi-threat-17th-anniversary-afghan-war/ Al-Qaeda Remains Top Global Jihadi Threat on 17th Anniversary of Afghan War]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved October 6, 2018.</ref>
Hillary Clinton testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the wake of the Benghazi murders that occurred under her stewardship, that weapons and fighters equipped by the Obama administration made their way into Mali and Algeria:
{{cquote|There is no doubt that the [[Algeria]]n terrorists had weapons from Libya. There is no doubt that the [[Mali]]an remnants of AQIM [Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb] have weapons from Libya.<ref>[http://news.yahoo.com/clinton-says-militants-used-weapons-libya-algeria-attack-154222664.html Clinton says militants used weapons from Libya in Algeria attack,] Reuters, Jan 23, 2013.</ref>}}
==State Support==
===Pakistan===
In 2000, British Intelligence reported that the Pakistani Inter-Services-Intelligence(ISI) had been taking an active role in several Al-Qaeda training camps since the 1990s.<ref>https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_9_11_Encyclopedia/PDDIgWRN_HQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA1&printsec=frontcover</ref> In 2012, the Afghan parliament's Security Commission has said that the ISI provides support to Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Nuristan Province.<ref>https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2012/04/12/pakistans-isi-supports-taliban-al-qaeda-in-nuristan-says-afghan-parliament/</ref>
===Iran===
According to a U.S. court record for the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings, Osama Bin Laden was living in Khartoum, Sudan when Sudanese religious scholar Ahmed Abdel Rahman Hamadabi brought Shekih Nomani an emissary of Iran to meet the Al-Qaeda leadership. Sheikh Nomani was described as having "had access to the highest echelons of power in Tehran.<ref>https://books.google.com/books?id=WDkqQSWFvvIC&pg=PA146#v=onepage&q&f=false</ref> This meeting resulted in an informal agreement between Iran and Al-Qaeda to cooperate, with Iran providing critical explosives, intelligence and security training to Bin Laden's organization.<ref name="washingtoninstitute.org">https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-iran-al-qaeda-conundrum</ref> Iran continued to provide support to Al-Qaeda even after they relocated to Afghanistan in 1996. Iranian officials helped Al-Qaeda members transit through Iran to Afghanistan. Iranian border guards were instructed not to stamp their passports, to prevent their home governments from suspecting that they had traveled to Afghanistan.<ref name="washingtoninstitute.org"/> A section of the 9/11 commission states that shortly after the meetings between Iran and Al-Qaeda in Sudan in 1991,"senior Al-Qaeda operatives and trainers traveled to Iran to receive training in explosives. In the fall of 1993, another such delegation went to the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon for further training in explosives as well as in intelligence and security. Bin Laden reportedly showed particular interest in learning how to use truck bombs such as the one that had killed 241 U.S Marines in Lebanon in 1983. The relationship between Al-Qaeda and Iran demonstrated that Sunni-Shia divisions did not necessarily pose an insurmountable barrier to cooperation in terrorist operations."<ref>https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/report/911Report.pdf#page=257</ref>
Iran and Al-Qaeda cooperation continues to this day. The State Department's Country Reports on terrorism has noted that, "Iran has allowed [Al-Qaeda] facilitators to operate a core facilitation pipeline through Iran since at least 2009, enabling[Al-Qaeda] to move funds and fighters to South Asia and Syria."<ref>https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2019/02/06/irans-support-for-al-qaeda-is-incompatible-with-fatf-standards/</ref>
===China===
After the U.S conducted cruise missile strikes against Al-Qaeda in 1998, China paid Osama Bin Laden several million dollars to access unexploded American cruise missiles. <ref>http://taiwantt.org.tw/cdrom/20020801/For%20Taiwan%20XII/Letters/2001-10-24-Walter%20Schwimmer%20letter-24.htm</ref>
== See also==
* [[Kunduz airlift]]
* [[Al-Nusra Front]]
* [[Al-Zarqawi: The Second Generation of Al Qaeda]]