WASHINGTON: More than two and a half years after US commandos shot dead Al-Qaeda figurehead Osama bin Laden, the global extremist network is more dangerous than ever, American experts and counterterrorism officials warned this week. Thanks notably to a flood of recruits flowing to join Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist forces fighting in Syria's civil war, the group is back on its feet, and securing territory from which it could once more threaten Europe and the United States. Bin Laden's former lieutenants in Al-Qaeda's historic leadership have been killed by US Special Forces or in drone strikes, or else are isolated and on the run in the tribal badlands on the Afghan-Pakistan border. But armed groups in Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and West Africa have flocked to his banner and Al-Qaeda is rebuilding its influence and recruiting fighters across the region. "Their leadership has been hit very hard, but this brand is still growing. And it's growing from an increased number of safe havens," said retired US Marine Corps general James Mattis. Between 2010 and earlier this year, Mattis led US Central Command, in charge of prosecuting Washington's long war against extremists in the Middle East, Southwest Asia and the Horn of Africa. Now he has hung up his uniform, but admits the war is far from over, warning: "The congratulations that we heard two years ago on the demise of Al-Qaeda were premature and are now discredited." Speaking at the Jamestown Foundation's annual conference on terrorism in Washington, Mattis said: "Al-Qaeda is resilient, they adapted. We have to think strategically before we act, not only act tactically." Bin Laden's death in May 2011 triggered a wave of optimism that the United States and its allies might have broken the back of the jihadist threat, but today officials here are under no illusions. Since the audacious commando strike that took out Al-Qaeda's apparently largely symbolic chieftain, the black banner of his movement has been raised more widely than ever. Militants inspired by or linked to Bin Laden's brand of armed jihad have sacked a US consulate in Libya and stormed a shopping mall in Kenya. Attacks are on the rise once again in Iraq, Al-Qaeda has reportedly begun operating in Egypt's Sinai desert and violent extremist groups are now the most powerful elements in the rebel coalition fighting in the Syrian civil war. Bruce Hoffman, director of the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University, told the Jamestown conference that collapsing states in the Middle East were opening up space for extremists. "The oxygen that Al-Qaeda depends on is access to sanctuaries and safe haven. And unfortunately over the past two years it gained greater access to more ungoverned spaces," he said. "The success of the attack in Nairobi and earlier in Mumbai suggests that this groups have now within their capacity the ability to fulfill one of Bin Laden's last commands or operational desires, which was to stage Mumbai-style attacks in Europe." For the experts gathered in Washington, Syria's civil war -- which has attracted Islamist volunteers from Muslim communities in Europe as well as Arab countries -- has worked greatly to Al-Qaeda's advantage. "The Al-Qaeda affiliated groups have created an alliance which disposes of 45,000 guerrilla fighters across the country," said David Kilcullen, a renowned counterinsurgency expert who has advised US forces in the field. "It's a very significant number, almost twice as many as we see in terms of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan," he said. "We're seeing a recovery on all fronts for Al-Qaeda." For Bruce Riedel, a three-decade CIA veteran who now works for the Brookings Institution, Al-Qaeda's resurgence is proof that it has managed to ride out and ultimately profit from the revolts that have roiled the Middle East and North Africa. "Al-Qaeda's narrative was challenged in 2011 by the Arab Spring. Peaceful demonstrations succeeded in toppling dictators. Al-Qaeda's narrative was at risk. Terror had not produced change, Twitter had," Riedel said. "But today, everything is different. Al-Qaeda's narrative is validated in 2013, most notably in Egypt. The counterrevolution has succeeded, the army has overthrown the elected government. "For those who want to join Al-Qaeda's movement, events in Cairo, in Damascus have validated what they long said: Jihad is the only solution to the problem of change in the Muslim world today." (AFP)

HARRISBURG: A winter storm blanketed a wide swath of the Northeast with a picturesque white layer on Saturday and gave ski resorts a boost, but caused dangerous travel conditions and complicated shopping plans less than two weeks before Christmas.

Multiple accidents were reported on roadways throughout the Midwest and Northeast, while airports reported hundreds of cancellations.

Airlines canceled nearly 1,200 flights because of the storm, including almost 375 flights into and out of Newark, N.J., and 189 at Chicago's O'Hare airport.

"It's a pretty bad day for Newark," said Mark Duell, a spokesman for FlightAware, a website that tracks commercial airlines. More than 40 percent of Newark's 900 flights were cut, he said.

The weather contributed to four deadly crashes on Missouri roads on Friday and Saturday and drivers in states throughout the path of the storm were warned of slick road conditions from snow and ice.

Parts of New England could see up to a foot by the time the front pulls out early Sunday and ushers in high winds that could be a hazard of their own. Up to 14 inches could fall in coastal towns in Maine.

At resorts and ski towns in Northern New England, the snow was a welcome kickoff for the winter season.

"We have been watching (the forecast) since people first started talking about it on Monday or Tuesday," said Ethan Austin, spokesman for the Sugarloaf Ski Resort in Carrabassett Valley, Maine. "Right now it's setting up pretty well for us, so we're pretty psyched."

The snow-dampened shopping weekend in mid-December was not such good news for retailers.

Kathy Grannis, a spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation, said consumers would likely take their shopping online. She said the weekend before Christmas will give retailers and shoppers another bite at the apple.

"If a big storm hits around the 21st, 22nd, it will be a completely different story," Grannis said.

The storm dropped more than 6 inches on parts of interior Pennsylvania by sundown, and speed limits were reduced on major interstates. Snow was falling at up to 2 inches per hour in northern Pennsylvania late in the afternoon, while the storm seemed to be skipping other areas entirely.

"It took a little while longer to start sticking down in the Harrisburg area," said National Weather Service meteorologist Elyse Colbert in State College. "Other parts of the state, though, it's panning out as expected."

At the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia, accountant Kathy Porter shivered under layers of clothing in the stands, trying to keep warm amid low temperatures she doesn't get much of back home in Charlotte, N.C.

"We're just hoping for snow and not rain — I think we can handle the snow," Porter said. "I think we'll be OK. A little frozen but OK."

Colbert said snow had reached more than 3 inches in State College by dinnertime Saturday and provided a lovely winter scene.

"Unless you have to drive in it," she said. (AP)