Al Qaeda operating 'shadow army' in Afghanistan as US troops prepare to leave

As the US prepares to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, the Al Qaeda is reportedly operating a "shadow army" inside the country to keep its numbers and scope of operations under wraps.

Afghanistan is at risk of becoming once again a haven for al Qaeda to train, plan and launch attacks, according to testimony that challenges the Obama administration's claims that secretive drone strikes have hamstrung the group's original core and its ability to launch international missions in recent years, The Washington Times reports.

A former senior Pentagon official reportedly revealed that there is a dangerous lack of political incentive in the White House to do anything but pull US forces out of the region.

Michael A. Sheehan, who served in the administration as assistant secretary of defense until last year said that there will be a great temptation for the administration to go to the 'zero option' and withdraw all troops by the end of the president's second term.

Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington said that documents seized from Osama bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, during the May 2011 raid revealed that the terrorist group was actively relocating operatives from northern Pakistan back into Afghanistan, the report said.

Joscelyn, said in prepared testimony on Tuesday that one way that al Qaeda operates in Afghanistan today is through the Lashkar al Zil, or 'shadow army,' which is al Qaeda's primary paramilitary force in the region.

He said that al Qaeda is trying to hide the extent of its influence over this group as well as over other allied groups, making it difficult to assess the full scope of al Qaeda's operations inside Afghanistan today.