The extremist preacher Abdullah al-Muhaysini no longer has to worry about US sanctions. In late August 2026, the US Department of the Treasury removed the former jihadist from the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list, or SDN List. It includes individuals and organizations whose assets are frozen in the US and with whom US citizens are generally not allowed to do business.
After Syria's civil war broke out in 2011, al-Muhaysini recruited fighters and helped establish a governing structure shaped by the Nusra Front, which emerged from al-Qaeda. His removal from the list is linked to the new US government policy on Syria: Washington also removed the Nusra Front and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from the SDN List. 25 years after the September 11 attacks, this is a remarkable snapshot. Al-Qaeda — which means "the base" in Arabic — has neither disappeared nor remained the same organization: Its core has weakened, but its regional branches have remained strong across parts of Africa and Asia, observers agree.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Only, al-Qaeda itself is operating less and less under its own name. "This is largely due to the successful counterterrorism efforts following 2001," Lars Berger, professor of terrorism studies at the German Federal University of Administrative Sciences, told DW. The military campaign in Afghanistan, along with cooperation between intelligence agencies and police, has significantly weakened the group.
"From this perspective, the September 11 attacks were a major strategic failure for al-Qaeda," Berger said. The hoped-for radicalization of the Arab world and the overthrow of its regimes failed to materialize. About ten years after the attacks in New York and Washington, al-Qaeda's most famous figure, Osama bin Laden, was killed in May 2011.
As a result, al-Qaeda reorganized itself. "The militia sought out areas where it could establish a permanent foothold, for example in parts of Africa or Yemen," Berger said, adding that "countries with weak state structures, overwhelmed security forces and unresolved local conflicts are particularly favorable." "Today, this is particularly true of Africa," Rüdiger Lohlker, professor emeritus of Islamic studies at the University of Vienna, notes. In the Sahel, Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM, has emerged as a powerful al-Qaeda offshoot, he said.
An analysis by the think tank Critical Threats Project uses Niger as an example to show how JNIM and the Islamic State's Sahel Province (ISSP) compete for territory, fighters and resources. In June 2026, JNIM claimed responsibility for an attack on the international airport in Niger's capital, Niamey. In Somalia, al-Shabab — a group closely linked to al-Qaeda — is strong, and in Yemen, al-Qaeda is present in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
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