How Terrorist Groups End - RAND Corporation

The Limits of America’s al Qa’ida Strategy 111
Figure 6.1
Al Qa’ida Attacks, 1995–2007 (excluding Iraq and Afghanistan)
30
25
Al Qa’ida attacks
20
15
10
5
0
RAND MG741-6.1
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Year
groups perpetrated. 26 For example, there are no reliable estimates—
and no way to reliably assess—which attacks in Afghanistan included
a significant al Qa’ida component. Several organizations—such as the
Taliban, al Qa’ida, and the Haqqani network—were involved in suicide
and IED attacks. But there was no dependable way to identify
which ones involved al Qa’ida. Nonetheless, al Qa’ida’s direct role in
the Afghanistan and Iraq insurgencies, both of which occurred after
September 11, 2001, strengthens the argument that it was involved in
more attacks in the first six years after September 11, 2001, than it was
before that date.
Between 1995 and 2001, al Qa’ida was involved in a range of terrorist
attacks beginning with the November 13, 1995, attack in Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia. The explosion occurred outside the office of the program
manager of the Saudi Arabian National Guard and killed seven people:
26 This task is especially difficult using unclassified sources.