Al-Qaeda could pursue smaller attacks: Leither

WASHINGTON: Al-Qaeda might focus on carrying out simpler, difficult-to-thwart attacks following the death of Osama bin Laden, said the Obama administration's exiting counterterrorism director Mike Leiter.

In an interview, Leiter, head of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, said al-Qaeda's reach has diminished in recent years due to U.S. intelligence, police and special forces efforts, including the May raid by Navy SEALs that resulted in bin Laden's demise.

Leiter suggested al-Qaeda's might aim in the wake of bin Laden's death to replicate the less ambitious tactics of affiliates such as Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is now considered the most probable source of a strike on the U.S. mainland.

"In my early days of the Bush administration, we still had a greater fear of a catastrophic attack," such as a strike involving a biological, chemical or nuclear weapon, the official said. Following the raid on the bin Laden compound, "I'm far more concerned now ... with the small-scale shooter," he said.

Such strikes would be more difficult than sophisticated plots to discover in advance, though they would harm fewer people, according to Leiter, noting last year's thwarted attempt by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to send explosives-laden packages to targets in the United States.