25 Years After 9/11: Al-Qaeda Diminished but Still Active Worldwide

The United States has removed extremist preacher Abdullah al-Muhaysini from its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, a register of individuals and organisations whose US-based assets are frozen and with whom Americans are generally barred from doing business. The delisting, confirmed by the US Department of the Treasury in late August 2026, comes amid a broader shift in Washington's approach to Syria.

Al-Muhaysini rose to prominence after Syria's civil war began in 2011, recruiting fighters and helping to build a governance structure linked to the Nusra Front, a group that originated from al-Qaeda. His removal from the sanctions list coincided with the US also delisting the Nusra Front and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

The development comes 25 years after the September 11 attacks and offers a telling illustration of al-Qaeda's current status. According to observers, the network — whose name means "the base" in Arabic — has not vanished, but has also not stayed static. Its central leadership has been significantly weakened, while affiliated branches remain active in parts of Africa and Asia. However, the group increasingly operates without directly invoking its own name.

Lars Berger, a professor of terrorism studies at the German Federal University of Administrative Sciences, attributed this decline largely to counterterrorism measures implemented after 2001. He pointed to the military intervention in Afghanistan and enhanced cooperation between international intelligence services and police forces as key factors that substantially reduced the group's capabilities over the past quarter-century.