Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda has been overwhelmed by ISIS.
When you think about the wars raging in the Middle East, there's one that won't make most people's top 10: the war between al-Qaeda and ISIS.
But an exclusive story in the Guardian reveals just how much damage ISIS has done to al-Qaeda.
“In a nutshell,” says the Guardian’s Shiv Malik, who co-authored the story, “it seems that over the last couple of years they’ve ripped them apart from the inside.”
The paper spoke to two top jihadi ideologues, who are close to al-Qaeda, one of whom said ISIS had ‘drowned’ al-Qaeda. The reporters also spoke to western intelligence officials who backed up their conclusions.
Recruits and money all now flow to ISIS, not al-Qaeda. “It seems al-Qaeda has been gutted by ISIS’ success,” says Malik.
ISIS has also done severe damage to al-Qaeda on the battlefield, from Syria to Afghanistan and Libya.
The conflict goes back to the civil war in Syria, Malik explains. Before then, ISIS was subordinate to al-Qaeda. But then it set up a branch in Syria, and Malik says “that caused a big power play over resources, men, money."
The death of Osama Bin Laden also played a role. His leadership of the global jihadi movement was relatively unchallenged. But Malik says his death created a vacuum.
The article also says the US has been playing catch-up. It describes a kind-of bureaucratic inertia in the ‘machine’ that’s grown up to tackle al-Qaeda — and isn't sure how to deal with this new threat.