What type of group is Al Qaeda classified as?

Al Qaeda is classified as an international terrorist group due to its operations, goals, and the scale at which it conducts its activities. Founded in the late 1980s, Al Qaeda emerged with a focus on global jihad, aiming to combat perceived injustices against Muslims worldwide and to establish a caliphate. Its members are not limited to a specific nation or region; they recruit from a diverse international landscape, organizing and executing terrorist attacks across various countries. This broad operational scope and its ideological commitment to conducting asymmetric warfare against both military and civilian targets worldwide underscore its classification as an international terrorist group. Other classifications, such as local activist groups or political parties, do not accurately capture the group's vast, transnational ambitions and its violent methods of achieving political goals.