US attack still significant al Qaeda goal: official

WASHINGTON: Striking the United States remains a "significant goal" for al Qaeda and its affiliates nearly a decade after the Sept. 11 attacks, the president's nominee to head the National Counterterrorism Center said on Tuesday.

The killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was a "significant milestone" and "substantial progress" has been made against al Qaeda, but the group still poses a top terrorism threat to the Unites States, Matthew Olsen said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"That threat is not so much from the senior (al Qaeda) leadership in Pakistan with one unified goal, it is now diffused in various regional locations under various leaders and with various goals," he said.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which operates in Yemen and claimed responsibility for a Dec. 25, 2009 attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound passenger plane, "has shown a willingness and a level of capability to strike in the United States," Olsen said.

If confirmed by the Senate, Olsen will become director of National Counterterrorism Centre.