25 years after 9/11: Al-Qaeda weakened but not gone

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.

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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.