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AQ’s activities include, but are not limited to, suicide attacks, simultaneous bombings, kidnappings, and hijackings. Following AQ’s attacks on September 11, 2001, and the subsequent fall of the Taliban regime, AQ’s central leadership, including bin Laden, sought refuge in Pakistan’s tribal areas, where in 2007 US intelligence agencies found that AQ was regrouping and regaining strength. In May 2011, bin Laden was killed by US forces in Pakistan, which left AQ’s leadership in disarray and the organization on the defensive. Since his succession as the leader of AQ, Ayman al-Zawahiri has renewed the group’s call for jihad, rallying fighters and supporters and reminded that jihad does not end with the death of its leaders.
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