Qaeda seeking big attack in U.S.: senior general

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda is looking to attack the United States, perhaps urgently, so that its leadership can show tangible results after repeated threats, a senior U.S. general said on Thursday.

Gen. Gene Renuart, head of the U.S. military command responsible for homeland defense, said recorded messages from al Qaeda leaders such as Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri show the group responsible for the September 11 attacks is "looking for a way to have a big impact again."

"If an organization like that is to maintain credibility and continue to grow more of its extremists, it has to show tangible results," Renuart said. "So I think there may be a certain sense of urgency among that organization to have an effect."

"I do think they are continuing to work at it, maybe harder than ever," he told reporters at the Pentagon.

Renuart said he believed groups sympathetic to al Qaeda were operating inside the United States.

But the Air Force general also said the U.S. military, intelligence and law enforcement agencies were doing "pretty" well in detecting and deterring activities of those groups.

Renuart said he did not see any direct effort to influence the U.S. presidential election in November.

"Right now, I don't see a direct threat to any of that activity," he said.

(Reporting by Kristin Roberts, Editing by Eric Beech)