Word: qaeda
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...perhaps its toughest challenge yet, the Pakistan army is gearing up, after much reluctance, for a ground offensive in South Waziristan to target what remains of Baitullah Mehsud's group, more than 5,000 well-armed central Asian fighters known for their brutality, and Arab fighters belonging to al-Qaeda. From their eastern patch of South Waziristan, the militants have authored close to 250 suicide attacks across Pakistan in the last 2½ years and trained other militants who have spread the Pakistani Taliban's brutality across the northwest. (See pictures of a Jihadist's journey...
...fall, likening it to the similarly atheist and communist USSR. Some of the impoverished former Soviet states that border China's Xinjiang region - where the majority of Uighurs live - are a potential powder keg for insurgency. Suspected Uighur terrorists operating along China's borderlands allegedly have ties to Al Qaeda-affiliated groups in Central Asia, who, according to observers, are consolidating in remote parts of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan after setbacks in Pakistan reportedly saw many foreign jihadis return to their homelands...
...Still, most Central Asia watchers doubt the capabilities of militants there, whether connected to al-Qaeda or devoted to more local struggles. Both Moscow and Beijing have wielded their influence among Central Asia's authoritarian governments to ensure that radical strains of political Islam get largely quashed. Uighur dissidents in exile have also repeatedly rejected any connection with terrorist activity and argue that, despite a few incidents of bombings and attacks in China, China exploits the specter of a terrorist threat to further repress Uighur rights. Al-Qaeda's recent statement does their cause few favors. "China could...
...while al-Qaeda's support may not be welcomed by many Uighurs, no other nations in the Muslim world beyond Turkey - whose people see the Uighurs as a kindred community - have offered much solidarity. As China's economic ties to the Middle East grow stronger, few governments can risk Beijing's ire. Its traditional image in the region as a remote and non-interfering member of the third world is shifting toward that of a more influential power, but it remains far from generating the kind of animosity and suspicion that the U.S. attracts. Instead, "China is perceived...
...pronounce clearer positions on a whole sticky set of conflicts - from the massacres in Sudan that Beijing has so far studiously ignored to the Israel-Palestine conflict to tensions between Iran and its neighbors. Missteps could fan popular anger and play into the hands of groups like al-Qaeda, ever eager to channel the discontent of the street. And with what many perceive as the steady decline of U.S. power and influence, China will only cast a longer shadow on the global stage. "In the coming years," says Simpfendorfer, "China will have to walk a very thin line...