Al Qaeda and Islamic State – a possible reconcilation?

Al Qaeda chief Ayman al Zawahiri has declared war against Islamic State, says a report in The Mirror.

The Islamic State group’s success against Syrian President Bashar Assad, his minority sectarian government, the Shi’ite Muslim majority in Iraq and the Western-led coalition has fueled the rivalry with al Qaeda.

“We don’t recognize this caliphate”.

“We [al Qaeda] don’t recognise this caliphate”, al-Zawahiri said in the audio message.

Islamist terror group Al Qaeda has slammed fellow jihadi Islamic State (IS) militants followed by an angry speech by its leader, the media reported on Friday. But his new comments may reflect the growing vulnerability of al-Qaida, which after years of rallying militants across the world has been overshadowed by the Islamic State. Now jihadist groups from Indonesia west to the African shores of the Atlantic declare their allegiance to either al Qaeda or ISIS.

Others, like Will McCants of the Brookings Institute, interpreted al-Zawahiri’s statement as “a bit of an olive branch”.

Yari showed a fragment taken from an Al Qaeda video with an audio message from Ayman al-Zawahiri that was released on Wednesday.

“Everyone was surprised” by Baghdadi’s declaration anointing himself the fourth caliph in Islamic history, he added.

The Islamic State has grown in captured space and recognition within the Center East since breaking off from al Qaeda as its affiliate in Iraq two years in the past, based on Fox Information Insider.

Al-Zawahiri became the leader of al-Qaeda terrorist network following the killing of the network’s leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces in May 2011.

Control of the strategically important area along the Israeli border is contested by various groups fighting in Syria-but especially by Hezbollah, which wants to expand its front with Israel into Syria.

But other aspects of its announcement today are deeply concerning-in particular, the announcement that the refugees will only come from “persecuted minorities” and that Australia will extend its air campaign against Islamic State into Syria.

Georgetown University’s Nicholas Palarino says al-Baghdadi is stealing his thunder, and al-Zawahiri feels threatened.

But one counterterrorism official tells CNN that while he would not rule out some cooperation between the groups, the distrust and enmity between the two leaders make unlikely a full reconciliation that could heighten the threat against the United States.