Photo illustration by the Daily Beast
By Nancy A. Youssef
U.S. intelligence and
defense officials are increasingly worried their fight against the
self-declared Islamic State is benefitting al Qaeda, ISIS’s jihadi
rival.
U.S. strikes against the self-proclaimed Islamic State have had an unintended beneficiary: al Qaeda.
Al
Qaeda has exploited the strikes and gained strength, and that has
created a growing rift within U.S. national security circles about where
the coalition should aim its strikes. Some American intelligence and
defense officials and counterterrorism experts are worried that the
intense focus on defeating ISIS has blinded the U.S. to the resurgence
of al Qaeda, whose growing potency has become more apparent as ISIS
becomes weaker.
The
American air campaign has notably not targeted al Qaeda in Syria, known
as Jabhat al Nusra. With its foe, ISIS, under daily coalition
bombardment, al Qaeda has been thriving, continuing to re-align itself
with local forces, and re-emerging as the world’s enduring terror group.
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Source: The Daily Beast
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