Updated on
Summary Senior members of al-Qaida are feared to be moving to North Africa to open up.
Senior British officials believe that a last push in 2012 is likely to definitively destroy Al-Qaidas remaining senior leadership in Pakistan, opening a new phase in the battle against Islamist terrorism.So many senior members of the organisation have been killed in an intense campaign of air strikes involving missiles launched from unmanned drones that only a handful of the key players remain alive, one official said.However, well-informed sources outside government and close to Islamist groups in north Africa said at least two relatively senior al-Qaida figures have already made their way to Libya, with others intercepted en route, raising fears that north Africa could become a new theatre of jihad in coming months or years.A group of very experienced figures from north Africa left camps in Afghanistans [north-eastern] Kunar province where they have been based for several years and travelled back across the Middle East, one source said. Some got stopped but a few got through.
