Editing Al-Qaeda (section)

=== Insurgent forces ===
According to author Robert Cassidy, al-Qaeda maintains two separate forces which are deployed alongside insurgents in Iraq and Pakistan. The first, numbering in the tens of thousands, was "organized, trained, and equipped as insurgent combat forces" in the Soviet–Afghan war.<ref name="Cassidy" /> The force was composed primarily of foreign ''mujahideen'' from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Many of these fighters went on to fight in Bosnia and Somalia for global ''jihad''. Another group, which numbered 10,000 in 2006, live in the West and have received rudimentary combat training.<ref name="Cassidy" />

Other analysts have described al-Qaeda's rank and file as being "predominantly Arab" in its first years of operation, but that the organization also includes "other peoples" {{as of|2007|lc=y}}.<ref>[http://www.meforum.org/article/1710 Jihad's New Leaders] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070704191032/http://www.meforum.org/article/1710 |date=July 4, 2007 }} by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Kyle Dabruzzi, ''Middle East Quarterly'', Summer 2007</ref> It has been estimated that 62 percent of al-Qaeda members have a university education.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=c841b52c-b2e7-4e41-b27e-33d10245b935&k=0|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929120758/http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=c841b52c-b2e7-4e41-b27e-33d10245b935&k=0|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 29, 2007|title=Today's jihadists: educated, wealthy and bent on killing?|publisher=Canada.com|date=July 3, 2007|access-date=March 22, 2010}}</ref> In 2011 and the following year, the Americans successfully settled accounts with Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki, the organization's chief propagandist, and Abu Yahya al-Libi's deputy commander. The optimistic voices were already saying it was over for al-Qaeda. Nevertheless, it was around this time that the Arab Spring greeted the region, the turmoil of which came great to al-Qaeda's regional forces. Seven years later, Ayman al-Zawahiri became arguably the number one leader in the organization, implementing his strategy with systematic consistency. Tens of thousands loyal to al-Qaeda and related organizations were able to challenge local and regional stability and ruthlessly attack their enemies in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe and Russia alike. In fact, from Northwest Africa to South Asia, al-Qaeda had more than two dozen "franchise-based" allies. The number of al-Qaeda militants was set at 20,000 in Syria alone, and they had 4,000 members in Yemen and about 7,000 in Somalia. The war was not over.<ref name=CFR2021>{{Cite web|title=Al-Qaeda's Resurrection|url=https://www.cfr.org/expert-brief/al-qaedas-resurrection|access-date=March 3, 2021|website=Council on Foreign Relations|archive-date=August 23, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210823041933/https://www.cfr.org/expert-brief/al-qaedas-resurrection|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2001, al-Qaeda had around 20 functioning cells and 70,000 insurgents spread over sixty nations.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=J. Tompkins, Crossett|first1=Paul, Chuck|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SPZdWxjMd6cC|title=Casebook on Insurgency and Revolutionary Warfare Volume II: 1962-2009|last2=Spitaletta, Marshal|first2=Jason, Shana|publisher=United States Army Special Operations Command|year=2012|location=Fort Bragg, North Carolina|pages=544|chapter=19- Al-Qaeda: 1988–2001}}</ref> According to latest estimates, the number of active-duty soldiers under its command and allied militias have risen to approximately 250,000 by 2018.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Klausen|first=Jytte|title=Western Jihadism: A Thirty-Year History|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2021|isbn=978-0-19-887079-1|location=United Kingdom|pages=1|chapter=1: Introduction}}</ref>