Islamist Wave 2014 - News & Discussion

10 posts

Angocachi
While Daash has stolen headlines in Iraq, it's worth noting that Jihadist actions continue around the world. Boko Haram, As Shabaab, the Taliban, Abu Sayyaf, Al Qaeda and so forth have been active and have been attacking. From South Thailand to Xinjiang to Kenya to Yemen to Dagestan and more. Here are a few examples;


Chinese police shoot dead 13 attackers in restive Xinjiang

Chinese police shot dead 13 attackers in the restive far-western region of Xinjiang on Saturday after they rammed a car into a police station and detonated explosives, Xinhua news agency said, in the latest of a series of attacks to worry Beijing.
China has been toughening its response to violent crime after a spate of attacks around the country, centred on Xinjiang, the traditional home of Muslim Uighurs.
China has blamed previous attacks on Islamist separatists in the region, who they say are looking to establish an independent state there called East Turkestan. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for Saturday's violence.

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"The gangsters drove a truck to ram the building of the public security bureau of Yecheng County in southern Xinjiang and set off explosives. Police shot and killed 13 attackers at the scene," Xinhua said, adding that three police were slightly wounded.
In 2012, seven attackers were shot dead after killing 13 people in a knife attack in Yecheng, also known by its Uighur name of Kargilik, a remote town on the road leading to China's mountainous border with Pakistan.
China has been on edge since a suicide bombing last month killed 39 people at a market in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi. In March, 29 people were stabbed to death at a train station in the southwestern city of Kunming.
The rise in violence has prompted a crackdown on violent crime. Authorities in Xinjiang have arrested dozens of suspects in recent weeks for spreading extremist propaganda, possessing banned weapons and other crimes.
China also executed over a dozen people for terrorist attacks in the region earlier this month and three for an attack on Beijing's central Tiananmen Square.
Resource-rich and strategically located on the borders of central Asia, Xinjiang has been plagued by violence for years, but exiled Uighur groups and human rights activists say the government's own repressive policies in Xinjiang have provoked unrest, something Beijing denies.
"The crackdown against the Uighur population is making it hard for people to bear," Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, the largest group of exiled Uighurs, told Reuters by email.
"Opening fire and killing those resisting, and accusing them of terrorism while skirting the root causes, this will only lead to the situation in the region becoming worse."
President Xi Jinping said earlier this year that the Kashgar region, which sits in the far west of Xinjiang, was "the front line in anti-terrorism". The Silk Road city of Kashgar has been at the centre of much of the unrest. Yecheng is in the Kashgar prefecture, and is more than 1,500 km southwest of Urumqi.

Chinese leaders have also been directing investment into Xinjiang. Xi pledged last month to alleviate poverty and improve ethnic unity in the region, the most direct indication yet that China's leaders want to address the causes of violence.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/21/us-china-security-idUSKBN0EW07D20140621


7 soldiers killed, 13 wounded in Sulu encounter

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines - - Fighting erupted between government troops and the Abu Sayyaf group in a village of Patikul town, Sulu Thursday morning, leaving seven marines, including an officer, dead and 13 others wounded.
The 2nd Marine Brigade based in Barangay Busbus, Jolo confirmed the encounter, adding that a pursuit operation is underway in Patikul town.
Lt. Col. Ulay, chief of Civil Military Operation (CMO), said a number of those wounded who are in critical condition have been airlifted to the military hospital at the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom).
Ulay decline to disclose more information. The military also declined to release additional details pending the approval of the command.
Names of the slain soldiers were not also made available as the victims' families have yet to be notified of the incident.
But an official, who requested not to be named as he is not authorized to make a statement, said two separate encounters broke out at Barangay Kagay when big number of the bandits attacked the operating marine forces about 6:20 a.m, resulting in the death of an officer.
Fighting ensued as the marines were reinforced but were also attacked by a separate faction of the Abu Sayyaf from another position.
The clash lasted for more than an hour.
There was no immediate report on the casualty sustained by the Abu Sayyaf group.
Last month, at least 25 Abu Sayyaf militants were killed in an encounter against the marines who were pursuing to rescue kidnap victims held by the bandits' kidnap for ransom group. - Roel Pareño
http://www.philstar.com/nation/2014/06/19/1336650/7-soldiers-killed-13-wounded-sulu-encounter



Mali suicide blast kills UN peacekeepers



Four UN peacekeepers from Chad killed and 10 others including six peacekeepers and four Malian soldiers wounded.
A suicide attack at a UN camp in northern Mali killed four Chadian peacekeepers and wounded 10 others including six peacekeepers and four Malian soldiers, the country's peacekeeping mission said.

A vehicle exploded at the entrance of the camp in the town of Aguelhoc, in the Kidal region, at 3:30 pm, according to a UN statement issued on Wednesday evening.
UN mission chief Albert Koenders condemned the attack as "cowardly and odious."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attacked "in the strongest terms" and extended condolences to the families of the victims, his spokesman said in a statement.

"This attack will not diminish the resolve of the United Nations to support the Malian people in their efforts to achieve peace and stability for all of Mali," the spokesman said.

Northern Mali fell under control of ethnic Tuareg rebels and then al-Qaeda-linked rebel groups following a military coup in 2012.

A French-led intervention last year scattered the rebel fighters, though the Tuaregs maintain a heavy presence in Kidal and have pushed back against the authority of the Bamako-based government.

Tensions escalated sharply last month when Prime Minister Moussa Mara visited Kidal for the first time since his appointment. In response, Tuareg rebels launched an assault on government buildings in the town, killing eight soldiers, six local government officials and two others in what the government described as a "declaration of war."

It was unclear who carried out Wednesday's attack, which came just one day after three northern Mali rebel groups signed an accord in Algiers pledging to work for peace in the region through inclusive talks.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/afric...kills-un-peacekeepers-201461224259500461.html
Angocachi
Broseph
I format the above very nicely. I post and the format is shit. What gives?

Anyhow,

'We love you ISIS': From USA to Rome to Australia - disturbing notes from EVERY continent show support for Islamist Jihadis terrorising Iraq after group's Twitter charm offensive

  • Members of the Sunni militant group vow to 'spread the truth' in storm that cannot be moderated or blocked
  • Using specific hash tag, they will answer questions, lambast allegations, and promote the extremist group's actions
  • Last night, President Barack Obama announced plans to unleash air strikes on militants and strongholds
  • ISIS fighters man checkpoints around refinery despite claims by Iraqi troops they were in 'complete control' of plant
  • They took chemical weapons facility built by Saddam Hussein, one of former leader's advisers is 'key member' of ISIS
  • Zuhair al-Nahar claims the ISIS insurgency gripping the country is 'a catastrophe of unprecedented scale'
  • PM Nouri al-Maliki facing growing pressure to resign over claims he has alienated Iraq's Sunni minority
  • Peace Brigades held to protect shrines in holy Shiite city of Najaf following calls from cleric Muqtatda al-Sadr
Parties celebrating Isis's rise in Iraq have erupted in Gaza.
Last night, flags bearing the extremist group's emblem were seen in the streets and on beaches. And images have emerged of Palestinians dancing and singing, clutching flags.


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The disturbing celebrations come just months after Al Qaeda fighters on the Gaza strip pledged allegiance to Isis - ignoring their leader's attempt to distance the two groups.
Ayman al-Zawahri released a statement in February condemning the actions of Isis as too extreme. But within days, images and clips of al-Zawahri's followers vowing to help the group began to sweep Twitter.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...m-morning-Obama-prepares-air-strike-Iraq.html


The great irony in the international love heaped on ISIS is that Zawahiri ruled against them largely because he believed they would tarnish Al Qaeda's image. While he walked on eggshells to improve AQ in the eyes of the Muslim street, ISIS ignored the opinion polls entirely and just fought the fight. We see once again the Arab and wider Muslim hatred for the one who seeks approval, like a woman who ignores the man who tries too hard. While polite and apologetic Al Qaeda has been left in his room every Friday night, the Sunni world has fallen in love with the rugged and defiant bad man.
Angocachi
Angocachi

Another GCC Monarch trying to put down the Islamist drive to topple them.

Note: Al Islah is Ikhwani - the Muslim Brotherhood in the UAE.

ABU DHABI, 20th June 2014 (WAM) - A United Arab Emirates newspaper has commented on the links between individuals and organisations that have conducted systematic attacks on the policies and people of the UAE.
"The UAE conducts its domestic and foreign policy openly, not in secret, the English language daily 'The National' said today, following investigation it conducted and published yesterday, detailing the extensive links between some media organisations in the UK and the Muslim Brotherhood
"The least we should expect is that our critics are similarly open about their motivations, sympathies and sources of funding. The twin criticisms of the UAE often made by Islamist supporters hinge on the trial of 94 Emiratis accused of membership of Islah and the country s support for Egypt s post-Morsi government.
Take each in turn, the paper explained, the trial of the 94 went on for months, all conducted in public. The court went to extreme lengths to make sure that reporters were present and accommodated. There was no political interference. All the while, journalists were free to move around the country and interview sympathisers as did Rori Donaghy, one of the activists mentioned in the investigation. No one obstructed his entry into the UAE nor his free movement around it. Contrast that with the behaviour of critics of the country, claiming to be interested purely in "human rights" while paying members of the public to picket the UAE's embassy in London.
"On Egypt, the support of the UAE has been public and clearly expressed. Nor is it done for solely nationalist reasons. The UAE has spent millions on Egypt s stability, aware of its responsibility to the Arab world s largest country. At a time of such chaos in the region, it is extraordinary to attack the UAE for seeking to minimise instability," the paper added.
"And yet such are the views of Islamists that they believe their ideas failed ideas, as we detail in the following editorial are the only ones worthy of defending, and yet do not have the courage of their convictions to do so openly.
The UAE is not like that. We are an open society and a society of laws. We are also a society that defends its beliefs, whether, as with Islah, against those who seek to overthrow a legitimate and successful government, or those, such as the media figures named yesterday, who seek to turn the public opinion of a crucial ally against us."
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/06/20/UAEs-Islamist-opponents-hide-behind-walls

Meanwhile Saud is dumbfounded that Maliki would accuse them of backing ISIS...


"ISIS does not represent the will of the Iraqi people. We don't see ISIS as revolutionaries. ISIS is a terror organization. It is not a savior but a destroyer of Iraq" -Prince Saud

Saudi Arabia slams ISIS

ARAB NEWS


Jeddah, June 20: Saudi Arabia has dismissed accusations from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki that it supports groups in Iraq as "ludicrous."
Addressing a press conference in Jeddah at the end of the 41st session of the Council of Foreign Ministers meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Thursday, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal took a dig at Al-Maliki. “Those allegations are not from Iraq but Al-Maliki,” he said.
He blamed Al-Maliki’s sectarian policies for the crisis in Iraq.

“We have unequivocally condemned the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) as a terrorist group,” said Prince Saud. “ISIS does not represent the will of the Iraqi people.”
Responding to a question from Arab News that some people see the events in Iraq as a people’s revolution, he said: “We don’t see ISIS as revolutionaries. They found the space to operate in Iraq because of the policies of the (Al-Maliki) government that divided Iraqis, treated them unequally, subjugated and terrorized them.”

Prince Saud said the Iraqi prime minister indulged in politics of vengeance and behaved in a dictatorial way by consolidating power in his office. “This is what led to the presumption that this is a people’s revolt,” he said.

Al-Maliki’s politics of hate “led to the breaking of the will of the security forces in meeting the challenge of the terrorists,” he said. “ISIS is a terror organization. It is not a savior, but a destroyer of Iraq,” said Prince Saud. He said the Kingdom was "opposed to all militias" from whatever sect.

He said no one has suffered more than Saudi Arabia from terrorism. “We fought a successful battle against them,” he said. “Therefore, those allegations (from Al-Maliki) are ludicrous,” he said.

The final declaration of the OIC meeting on Thursday did not specifically mention Iraq, but called on all Islamic countries to unite against sectarian politics. “(These) exclusionary sectarian policies have led to the emergence of sedition pervading the political arena and creating chaos,” the declaration stated. “They (have) endangered peace, stability and the sovereignty of many states and are not easy to overcome.” The OIC called on member states to not discriminate between various factions on ethnic or other grounds.

The OIC rejected the presidential elections in Syria. “They contravene the Geneva Communiqué which called for the establishment of a transitional governing body to supervise constitutional reforms, leading to free and fair elections to revive the political process and involve all Syrian parties,” the final declaration stated.
The OIC stated that the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces was the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2014/Jun/21/saudi-arabia-slams-isis-3.asp

Gruppenführer Glitter
Longface
Buddhist Power

FIVE years after the end of a bloody civil war that pitted Sri Lanka’s ethnic-Sinhala-dominated government against members of its Tamil minority, fears are growing about mounting violence along another of the country’s fault-lines—religion. On June 15th Sinhala Buddhist mobs rampaged through three towns on the southern coast, burning and attacking Muslim businesses and homes. Families cowered in marshes and took refuge in mosques as crowds banged on doors, baying for Muslims to come out. Some carried clubs, others flung petrol bombs.

The violence sputtered for nearly two days. Four people, three of them Muslims, were killed, and about 80 were injured. Calm was restored only when the army stepped in on June 17th. Outnumbered, the police and their special forces had struggled to beat back the mobs. Angry Muslims say many stood by and did nothing.

The mobs were incited by an inflammatory speech from a Buddhist monk named Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara. A rabble-rouser like the Burmese monk, Wirathu, whom he recently visited, Mr Gnanasara leads an organisation called Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), or Buddhist Power Force, that supports militancy against minorities to preserve the dominance of the Buddhist majority. Muslims have been particular targets. Although just 10% of the population, they are making headway in business and finance. Most shops attacked this week were run by Muslims. Some were razed to the ground.

The BBS organised a rally in the town of Aluthgama at which Mr Gnanasara raged that any “marakkalaya” (a derogatory term for Muslims) who laid a finger on a Sinhalese was doomed. His timing was pointed. Three days earlier hundreds of angry people had surrounded the Aluthgama police station after a Muslim man assaulted the driver of a Buddhist monk following a traffic dispute. The monk claimed that he too had been wounded. The government was blamed for allowing the BBS meeting to take place so soon after the incident. The inspector-general of police said he had thought the rally would end peacefully. Muslim parliamentarians countered that they had tried hard to stop it from going ahead. Mr Gnanasara’s hate speech clearly violates the law. Nor is this the first time he has incited violence against Muslims. He has not yet been arrested for his latest speech, though on June 17th the police got a court order to stop another BBS rally. They have been authorised to shoot violators.

The local press has largely ignored or played down the rioting. As it was under way President Mahinda Rajapaksa was in Bolivia at the G77 summit, tweeting breezily about climate change. After being criticised for his apparent insouciance, he did take to Twitter again to pledge to “bring to book” those responsible. He has promised an investigation and has said the government will rebuild destroyed houses and shops. But his government will find it hard to portray itself as a staunch defender of its Muslim minority.
Bob Dylan Roof
I'm working on a press released for this, but this is just a quick reminder in the interim that Salo is a 969- and Buddhist Power Force-friendly forum.
Bronze Age Pervert

Western media (Saudi whores) always side with Muslims in these conflicts...

Then when you read about Wirathu and the various riots in Burma, you see that in every case it was following an (undisputed) horrible attack by a Muslim or Muslims, such as burning a Buddhist woman alive, etc., etc.

These are savages and the Buddha Power 969 is showing Aryan men the way to dealing with ALL emanations from the pits of the world.

Angocachi
There's A Theory Saudi Arabia Funds The ISIS Extremists Taking Over Iraq — Here's Why It's Wrong

On June 13, U.S. Treasury Department officials stated that Saudi Arabia sees "eye to eye" with the United States on the importance of halting activities by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), the former al-Qaeda affiliate currently waging jihad in Iraq and Syria.

Yet questions continue to arise about Saudi financial support to the group. Addressing these questions requires a better understanding of three issues: the scope of official Saudi government support to ISIS, if any; government allowance of private donations to the group; and the relative importance of Saudi donations compared to the group's other sources of income.
Government Funding?

At present, there is no credible evidence that the Saudi government is financially supporting ISIS. Riyadh views the group as a terrorist organization that poses a direct threat to the kingdom's security. The Interior Ministry formally designated ISIS as a terrorist entity in March, along with Jabhat al-Nusra, the Muslim Brotherhood, Yemen's Houthi rebels, and Saudi Hezbollah. The designation outlawed various forms of support to the group by residents of the kingdom.
To be sure, many governments in the region and beyond sometimes fund inimical parties to help achieve particular policy objectives. Riyadh has taken pleasure in recent ISIS-led Sunni advances against Iraq's Shiite government, and in jihadist gains in Syria at Bashar al-Assad's expense. Nevertheless, official financing of the group may be precluded by Riyadh's perception that the ISIS terrorist threat is immediate and serious (though it would not be surprising to learn of limited, perhaps indirect contact, logistical coordination to further Sunni positions in Syria and beyond, or leaking of funds and materiel from Saudi-supported rebels to ISIS).
An Interior Ministry statement in early May underscored Saudi perceptions of the ISIS threat at home. In it, officials accused Saudi ISIS members in Syria of encouraging fellow citizens to assassinate leading religious figures and security officials inside the kingdom and plot attacks against government installations and foreign interests. Some of the individuals involved in these domestic plots allegedly had contacts with ISIS and the Yemen-based group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) -- the kingdom's most acute terrorist threat. At the time of the announcement, police had arrested fifty-nine Saudi citizens and three foreign nationals in the case and were still searching for forty-four additional suspects.
Private Donations

There is a misconception that the kingdom does not get in the way of private Saudi financing of terrorist groups operating in Syria, including ISIS. Yet one of Riyadh's most observable counter-terrorism financing activities is its monitoring of the country's formal financial sector in order to block suspect donations. Indeed, social media fundraising campaigns highlight the challenges of sending such funds from Saudi Arabia to Syria. To ensure that their contributions actually reach Syria, Saudi donors are encouraged to send their money to Kuwait, long considered one of the most permissive terrorism financing environments in the Persian Gulf.
Riyadh's concern about blowback -- namely, the belief that allowing citizens to support terrorist groups hostile to the al-Saud monarchy will eventually spawn attacks on Saudi soil -- helps drive the kingdom's counterterrorism approach.
In the mid-2000s, the country suffered a series of dramatic al-Qaeda attacks linked to Saudis returning home from the jihad in Afghanistan, and that experience was important in shaping the current mindset. As mentioned above, Riyadh formally outlawed private donations to ISIS and other groups when it designated them as terrorist organizations in March. That move may have been connected to increasing government concern about Saudi membership in foreign terrorist groups, and may have coincided with the investigation of the domestic ISIS-linked cell announced in May.
Today, Saudi citizens continue to represent a significant funding source for Sunni groups operating in Syria. Arab Gulf donors as a whole -- of which Saudis are believed to be the most charitable -- have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Syria in recent years, including to ISIS and other groups. There is support for ISIS in Saudi Arabia, and the group directly targets Saudis with fundraising campaigns, so Riyadh could do much more to limit private funding. U.S. officials have hinted that a combination of politics, logistics, and limited capabilities have impeded more effective Saudi efforts to counter terrorism financing. One particularly difficult problem is how to monitor cash transfers, a method common among Saudi donors.
Relative Importance Of Saudi Funding

Although Saudi donors and other private contributors were believed to be the most significant funding source for ISIS in the past, the importance of such donations has been marginalized by the group's independent sources of income.
This income, which is now estimated to overwhelmingly exceed private donations, is generated by activities such as smuggling (of oil, weapons, antiquities), extortion (e.g., the group levies around $8 million per month in "taxes" on local businesses), and other crimes (e.g., robberies, counterfeiting). The group's June 11 seizure of Mosul's central bank alone netted tens of millions of dollars (though U.S. officials note that the $400 million figure often cited in connection with the heist is not accurate).
US Policy Implications

Recent ISIS gains in Iraq present an opportunity for Washington to tighten counter-terrorism financing cooperation with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, whose concerns about ISIS terrorist threats on their soil are deepening. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew's visit last week to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- the closest U.S. partners on this issue in the Gulf -- is a positive step.
Another constructive move would be to gauge the potential for altering Washington's contentious dynamics with Kuwait and Qatar regarding terrorism financing. There are signs that ISIS "successes" may fuel higher levels of private Saudi and other Gulf support to a variety of Sunni extremist groups operating in Iraq and Syria, which would be important to counter.
At the same time, the current reality -- that of ISIS acquiring major independent sources of income -- demands a counter-terrorism financing approach that shifts away from focusing on private donations made by residents of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. Significantly undermining ISIS's financial base would now require rolling back the group's access to local Syrian and Iraqi income sources.

http://www.businessinsider.com/theory-that-saudi-arabia-funds-isis-2014-6
Angocachi
Jihadist vs. Jihadist


Young Islamists see al Qaeda as a spent force. They admire ISIS for its brutality.

The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham's lightning campaign to conquer Iraq has renewed a jihadist drama between Ayman al-Zawahiri, the head of al Qaeda's central leadership, and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the secretive leader of ISIS. During the past year, these two arch-terrorists have been at loggerheads over al-Baghdadi's refusal to limit his operations to Iraq, leading to intense clashes between Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Zawahiri's sanctioned al Qaeda branch in Syria, and ISIS.
Many observers have read al-Baghdadi's successes in Iraq and his defiance of al-Zawahiri as reason to herald a coup within the al Qaeda network. That's still premature. But unless the international community succeeds in pressuring Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government to abandon its Iranian-influenced sectarian tactics, al-Baghdadi could very well take the helm of a reinvigorated global jihadist movement.
For the time being, al-Baghdadi's impressive gains in Iraq have done little to sway the allegiance of al Qaeda's key regional branches, which remain broadly loyal to al-Zawahiri. Even after ISIS stormed Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, earlier this month—possibly the greatest jihadist achievement since 9/11—statements of support from prominent jihadists in the region have been few and far between.
Abu Ayad al-Tunisi, the leader of Tunisia's Ansar al-Shariah network, issued a statement blessing the ISIS gains but stressing the importance of reconciliation between al-Baghdadi and al-Zawahiri. Tunisi's message is particularly notable as he was previously known for his outspoken support of al-Baghdadi. The pan-Persian Gulf Salafist Ummah movement issued a statement hailing the ISIS gains in Iraq but also calling for unity among jihadist groups. Jaish al-Islam, or Army of Islam, another prominent jihadist group fighting the Shiite-led government in Iraq, refused to mention its partner ISIS by name in its blessing of the current campaign.
Other prominent jihadist leaders—including those of al-Shabaab in East Africa, Ansar al-Shariah in Libya, AQIM and AQAP (al Qaeda franchises in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, respectively), along with the Taliban networks in Central Asia—have all refrained so far from any outburst of support that for al-Baghdadi's achievements.
Despite his rapid rise, al-Baghdadi has crossed several red lines, and his peers have reproached him. Zawahiri—even amid mounting criticism of his own poor leadership and lack of initiative following the death of Osama bin Laden —remains widely respected across radical networks as the one and only head of al Qaeda, which itself is perceived as the sole umbrella network of global jihad.
For the past year al-Baghdadi's defiance of al-Zawahiri, in straying over the Iraqi border into Syria, has resulted in considerable criticism from jihadist leaders across the region, many of whom fought with bin Laden and al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan. These critics include Jordanian jihadists Abu Qatada al-Filistini and Abu Mohammed al-Maqdisi ; Ansar al-Shariah in Libya leader Mohammed al-Zahawi ; and even Mokhtar Belmokhtar, himself a sometimes-renegade al Qaeda commander who orchestrated the 2013 hostage crisis-turned-massacre at the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria. These men's ultimate allegiance to al-Zawahiri enables al Qaeda's central leadership to continue ordering attacks across Africa, the Middle East and Asia via covert messages and propaganda videos.
While al-Baghdadi may be viewed with suspicion by the old generation of jihadists, he is rapidly gaining favor among the younger generation, which is struggling to find a sufficiently extremist voice among traditional al Qaeda branches in the region and beyond. From Belgium to Australia, ISIS fans are using the Twitter hashtag #AllEyesOnISIS to post messages of support for al-Baghdadi's efforts.
Several upstart jihadist militias and Salafist movements in eastern Libya, Jordan, Gaza and Yemen have also unilaterally declared allegiance to al-Baghdadi, in some cases claiming to have established ISIS branches in their home countries. They've seen al-Baghdadi's ability to bring real results in Iraq, while al-Zawahiri hides in Pakistan's tribal territories. Young Islamists view Zawahiri's 2013 combat doctrine as too restrictive, since the orders call for restraint in attacks against civilians and non-Muslims.
Within Yemen's jihadist circles, meanwhile, the Jabhat al-Nusra network aligned with al-Zawahiri is increasingly mistrusted for its ties to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government is currently supporting the Yemeni government in its crackdown against AQAP, which is based in Yemen.
The course of battle in Iraq threatens to compromise the global al Qaeda network's delicate cohesiveness, potentially leading to a violent wave of attacks by the competing factions. The longer al-Zawahiri and al-Baghdadi fail to reconcile, the more their supporters in the region will be tempted to take sides and stage attacks in an effort to outdo each other's influence. Baghdadi's newfound wealth, obtained after ISIS reportedly robbed $429 million from the Iraqi central bank in Mosul earlier this month, may prompt up-and-coming radicals to compete for his backing in the same manner.
Under the guidance of Iran, Mr. Maliki is beginning to mimic the Assad regime's strategy in Syria, placing zealous Shiite jihadists at the tip of his strategy against the ISIS-led Sunni campaign. These developments make al-Baghdadi the de facto Sunni leader in what increasingly looks like an existential conflict for sectarian survival. Without any political or military backing from the West, moderate Sunni populations and their leaders in Iraq and across the region who oppose the Iranian axis will be more inclined to fall in line behind al-Baghdadi and ISIS—even if they despise the group's brutal religious governance.
This is a scenario that any Western government should consider before backing the Maliki government's counteroffensive against Iraq's Sunni opposition. Support should be conditioned on the Maliki government abandoning its sectarian strategy and reconciling with moderate Sunnis. Otherwise, any foreign intervention in Iraq threatens to propel the influence of one of the world's most vicious jihadist outfits to dangerous new heights.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/how-iraq-is-dividing-the-jihadi-movement-1403636188