Kabul:
The killing of Osama bin Laden may weaken Al Qaeda's influence on the Afghan Taliban, the US military commander in Afghanistan has said.
Even so, Gen David Petraeus has warned that Afghanistan is still a potential refuge for international terror groups, and Al Qaeda is just one of those.
He also warned that the May 1 US raid that killed the Al Qaeda leader in his Pakistani compound did not spell the end of the NATO battle in Afghanistan, which began just one month after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington with the aim of wiping out Al Qaeda and bin Laden.
NATO officials have said that they do not intend to speed up their withdrawal just because Al Qaeda's leader is gone, but the military feels it may bring the Taliban closer to negotiations with the Afghan government.
Interviewed aboard his helicopter by The Associated Press, Petraeus said the strong link between Al Qaeda and the Taliban was personal, not organizational.
"The deal between the Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda was between Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden, not the organisations," Petraeus said as he visited US troops in eastern Afghanistan.
Petraeus said bin Laden's death may make it easier for the Taliban to renounce Al Qaeda, a condition for reconciliation talks set by NATO and the Afghan government.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Obama administration have said they will negotiate with any Taliban member who embraces the Afghan constitution, renounces violence and severs ties with Al Qaeda. Informal contacts have been made in recent months with high-ranking Taliban figures, but no formal peace talks are under way.
The two groups do not seem to be inextricably aligned. While Al Qaeda has backed worldwide terrorist attacks in the name of Muslim jihad, the Taliban has been mainly a nationalist movement aiming to regain control of Afghanistan.
The Taliban has claimed that rather than weaken their ties with Al Qaeda, bin Laden's death would boost their fighters' morale. On Saturday the group tried to mount a coordinated assault on government buildings in southern city of Kandahar.
Bin Laden's demise might weaken Al Qaeda from within, Petraeus said, because bin Laden's personality and aura were a key for raising money for the world jihad group, and without him, the group's worldwide network might fall apart under his successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
"Ayman al-Zawahiri is no Osama bin Laden," Petraeus said. Petraeus warned that Al Qaeda is only one of a number of international terrorist organisations that would be eager to flood into an unstable Afghanistan if NATO forces left.
Even so, Gen David Petraeus has warned that Afghanistan is still a potential refuge for international terror groups, and Al Qaeda is just one of those.
He also warned that the May 1 US raid that killed the Al Qaeda leader in his Pakistani compound did not spell the end of the NATO battle in Afghanistan, which began just one month after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington with the aim of wiping out Al Qaeda and bin Laden.
NATO officials have said that they do not intend to speed up their withdrawal just because Al Qaeda's leader is gone, but the military feels it may bring the Taliban closer to negotiations with the Afghan government.
Interviewed aboard his helicopter by The Associated Press, Petraeus said the strong link between Al Qaeda and the Taliban was personal, not organizational.
"The deal between the Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda was between Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden, not the organisations," Petraeus said as he visited US troops in eastern Afghanistan.
Petraeus said bin Laden's death may make it easier for the Taliban to renounce Al Qaeda, a condition for reconciliation talks set by NATO and the Afghan government.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Obama administration have said they will negotiate with any Taliban member who embraces the Afghan constitution, renounces violence and severs ties with Al Qaeda. Informal contacts have been made in recent months with high-ranking Taliban figures, but no formal peace talks are under way.
The two groups do not seem to be inextricably aligned. While Al Qaeda has backed worldwide terrorist attacks in the name of Muslim jihad, the Taliban has been mainly a nationalist movement aiming to regain control of Afghanistan.
The Taliban has claimed that rather than weaken their ties with Al Qaeda, bin Laden's death would boost their fighters' morale. On Saturday the group tried to mount a coordinated assault on government buildings in southern city of Kandahar.
Bin Laden's demise might weaken Al Qaeda from within, Petraeus said, because bin Laden's personality and aura were a key for raising money for the world jihad group, and without him, the group's worldwide network might fall apart under his successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
"Ayman al-Zawahiri is no Osama bin Laden," Petraeus said. Petraeus warned that Al Qaeda is only one of a number of international terrorist organisations that would be eager to flood into an unstable Afghanistan if NATO forces left.
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