Al-Qaida Will Take Decades to Eradicate, Thinktank Says

Al-Qaida has retained the ability to plan and coordinate large-scale attacks in the west, a leading think tank warned today.

The terrorist group has proved adaptable and resilient, the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) in London said in its annual survey, six years after the group became a household word with its attacks on America's World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"The United States and its allies have failed to deal a deathblow to al-Qaida; the organization's ideology appears to have taken root to such a degree that it will require decades to eradicate," IISS said in its 2007 strategic survey.

The al-Qaida threat has resurfaced in dramatic fashion in recent days. The German authorities last week arrested three suspects - two of them German converts to Islam - on suspicion of planning "massive" bomb attacks on Frankfurt airport and the US air base at Ramstein.

At the weekend, more than 50 people were killed in Algeria and Morocco in attacks carried out by al-Qaida's purported North African wing, al-Qaida in the Maghreb.

IISS said al-Qaida had shown great skill and ingenuity in propagating its extremist ideology, and its "single narrative" that sees Muslims as victims of non-Muslim aggression needed to be addressed, both in the Islamic world and elsewhere.

The report said it was not enough for governments in the Islamic world to encourage individuals to consider non-violent responses to perceived injustices; they had to confront the al-Qaida narrative head-on.

In the west, governments also needed to make a more assertive defense of the liberal secular tradition and look again at the relative balance between individual and community rights and between secular and religious visions of society.

In general, IISS said, the US suffered a loss of international authority as a result of its failure to impose order in Iraq with leaders and groups around the world seeking to take advantage or to protect themselves from the consequences of this loss of prestige.

As for the current US strategy in Iraq, IISS said efforts for political reconciliation were of paramount importance for any military gains from the "surge" to be sustained. It said the US needed to put much greater political pressure on the Iraqi government to reform.

"Goals will need to be set for cabinet ministers, from [prime minister] Nuri al-Maliki on down, ranging from the removal of sectarian actors through to the unbiased delivery of government services," IISS said.

"If these targets are not met then the US might have to consider reducing its financial and security support for those ministries and ministers not complying with its requests."