A look at the rivalry between al-Qaida and IS

[rooster59]

A look at the rivalry between al-Qaida and IS

JOSEPH KRAUSS, Associated Press


CAIRO (AP) — The attack on a Mali hotel claimed by al-Qaida may have been partly aimed at asserting the global terror network's relevance as it faces an unprecedented challenge from the Islamic State group for leadership of the global jihadi movement.

Both groups are at war with the West and committed to the revival of an Islamic caliphate, but they are furiously divided over strategy and leadership, and have battled one another in Syria.

The attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, which killed 19 people, came exactly a week after the IS group's carnage in Paris, which killed 130 people in the bloodiest attack on France in decades.

The Mali attack, claimed by al-Qaida and a North African outfit known as Al-Mourabitoun (The Sentinels), may have been aimed at disrupting a fragile peace process with armed groups in the country's north that had made progress in recent months.

But experts also suggested it was aimed at reminding the world that the movement founded by Osama bin Laden has not been completely eclipsed by the IS group and its self-styled caliphate.

"Al-Qaida and its international affiliates have been surpassed by IS and needed to show that that they are still there," said Djallil Lounnes, an expert on radical groups in the Sahara who is based in Morocco.

The following is a look at the rivalry between al-Qaida and the Islamic State group:

ORIGINS

The Islamic State group began as al-Qaida in Iraq, a local affiliate that battled U.S. troops and carried out massive attacks targeting the country's Shiite majority. From the beginning there were tensions between the local group, led by the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and al-Qaida's central leadership. In a 2005 letter obtained and publicized by U.S. intelligence, bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, objected to al-Zarqawi's brutality toward Shiite civilians, saying it would turn Muslims against the group. Al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2006, but to this day is seen as the founder of the Islamic State group, which has eagerly embraced his brutal tactics.

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RUPTURE

In 2013, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi renamed his group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, proclaiming his authority in Iraq and neighboring Syria. Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the leader of the Nusra Front, al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate, rejected the move and swore allegiance to al-Zawahri, who ordered al-Baghdadi to confine his operations to Iraq.

Al-Baghdadi refused, and by 2014 the Nusra Front and the Islamic State group were battling each other across northern Syria. The split reverberated across the Muslim world, with al-Qaida affiliates in Yemen and North Africa remaining loyal to al-Zawahri while others pledged allegiance to the IS group.

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DIFFERENCES

Both groups want to end Western influence in the Middle East and unite Muslims under a transnational caliphate governed by a harsh version of Islamic law. But they are bitterly divided over tactics.

Bin Laden believed that attacking the "far enemy" of the United States would weaken its support for the "near enemy" of Arab autocracies and rally Muslims to overthrow them. Under al-Zawahri, local al-Qaida affiliates have sought to exploit post-Arab Spring chaos by allying with other insurgents and tribes, and by cultivating local support in places like Syria and Yemen, where they provide social services. For bin Laden, who was killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan in 2011, and his successor al-Zawahri, the establishment of a caliphate was a vaguely defined end goal.

The IS group, on the other hand, began by seizing and holding territory in Syria and Iraq and spawning affiliates across the chaos-riddled Middle East. It declared a caliphate in the summer of 2014 and al-Baghdadi now claims to be the leader of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims, the overwhelming majority of whom have rejected his brutal tactics.

For the IS group, al-Qaida is both an anachronism, because the caliphate has already been reborn, and a renegade movement, since it has rejected al-Baghdadi's authority. Al-Qaida supporters dismissively refer to IS as "al-Baghdadi's group."

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COMPETING ON CARNAGE

The assault on Paris was an implicit rebuke of al-Qaida, which hasn't carried off an attack on that scale in several years. If the Mali attack turns out to be a response of some kind, it could herald a new era of global competition between the two groups, each seeking to outdo the other with ever more devastating attacks.

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Associated Press writer Paul Schemm in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, contributed to this report.

-- (c) Associated Press 2015-11-22

[steven100]

............... yawn ........ who cares , just burn them all .

[Seastallion]

Give them enough rope, but at the same time stymie them.

[Krataiboy]

The one fact not stated in this article, but probably more relevant than any other, is that both Al Qaeda and IS were originally products of US intelligence.

Osama Bin Laden was recruited by the CIA as a go-between with the Muhajadeen (or Al Qaeda, to give them the name they were filed under by US intelligence sources). They were the Islamic fundamentalist group who ran the Soviets out of Afghanistan, were used to fragment Yugoslavia and later ungratefully turned to bite the Western hands that fed them.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, self-proclaimed Emperor of the new Caliphate now spreading across the Middle East, was a leading light of the of US-backed Free Syrian Army set up to oust Assad before becoming disenchanted and breaking away to form ISIL. There is a picture doing the rounds on the Internet of him and his jihadist mates joshing with Senator John McCain during a clandestine meeting beteen the venerable US senator and FSA leaders.

So now you know who you have to thank for the two Frankensteins currently terrorising the world. We've been Bush-whacked.

[jesimps]

The one fact not stated in this article, but probably more relevant than any other, is that both Al Qaeda and IS were originally products of US intelligence.

Osama Bin Laden was recruited by the CIA as a go-between with the Muhajadeen (or Al Qaeda, to give them the name they were filed under by US intelligence sources). They were the Islamic fundamentalist group who ran the Soviets out of Afghanistan, were used to fragment Yugoslavia and later ungratefully turned to bite the Western hands that fed them.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, self-proclaimed Emperor of the new Caliphate now spreading across the Middle East, was a leading light of the of US-backed Free Syrian Army set up to oust Assad before becoming disenchanted and breaking away to form ISIL. There is a picture doing the rounds on the Internet of him and his jihadist mates joshing with Senator John McCain during a clandestine meeting beteen the venerable US senator and FSA leaders.

So now you know who you have to thank for the two Frankensteins currently terrorising the world. We've been Bush-whacked.

Just a left wing excuse to have a go at Bush. If it wasn't Al Quaida or Daesh it'd be other muslim groups aiming for a caliphate.

Take no heed of these lefties having a go at the west, the muslims were snapping at our heels long before Iraq, Afghanistan etc.

Wish they'd just go on fighting amongst themselves until they cancel each other out.

[soc]

............... yawn ........ who cares , just burn them all .

My thoughts exactly.

[rocketman777]

IS is just the re-branding of al-Qaida. Both are creations of US intelligence as a pretext to maintain a state of perpetual war and military domination of the Oil resources of the Middle East

[sead]

IS is just the re-branding of al-Qaida. Both are creations of US intelligence as a pretext to maintain a state of perpetual war and military domination of the Oil resources of the Middle East

And its not only al- qaida and isis. Us have been supporting so many factions and thats the reason they dont want to engage several groups. Putin knows that and thats why he targets all the bad guys. A bad guy is a bad guy period!

[Credo]

Putin is targeting a lot of people because he is pissed off about his plane being blown up.

Assad and the Iranians hardly fall into a category of good people.