Al-Qaeda Remains the Vanguard of the Jihadist Movement

Via SITE -

After five years of being subjected to the “global war on terror,” Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the rest of the al-Qaeda leadership still have much to celebrate. While al-Qaeda has suffered greatly since 9/11, with its training camps in Afghanistan destroyed and a significant number of operatives killed or captured, the terrorist organization has nevertheless received new pledges of allegiance from prominent jihadist groups. Within the past two months, though largely ignored by the media, both the Algerian Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC) and a faction of the Egyptian Islamic Group (EIG) officially joined al-Qaeda. Likewise, other recent claims of terrorist attacks in the Sudan and Palestine have come from groups calling themselves Al-Qaeda. To the jihadists, al-Qaeda’s brand name continues to carry much clout, indicating that despite the setbacks al-Qaeda has faced, the group and its leadership remain the vanguard of the global jihadist movement.