Al Qaeda vs. ISIS: A battle for Jihadist supremacy in Libya
News that ISIS is forming bases in Libya has Western countries on edge,
but it's also not welcome news to another group that operates in that
country: al Qaeda. The terror network of the late Osama bin Laden,
strongest between 1998 and 2003, has been less visible in recent years.
Al Qaeda's worldwide decline is in part due to the emergence and
growing power of the Islamic State. Still, Al Qaeda affiliates in Libya
have a strong presence, and are believed to have been behind the attack
in Benghazi in 2012 which killed four Americans including the U.S.
ambassador.
Now, both terror groups are seizing on Libya's civil war and leadership
vacuum to build strong power bases in the oil-rich country, a move that
has already resulted in clashes, as both groups fight for supremacy and
support. To understand how these terror networks operate and why they
are at odds we spoke to the experts.
STRATEGY
Both groups share the same long-term objective of resurrecting the
caliphate, Thomas Joscelyn, senior editor of the Long War Journal, told
CTV News Channel Friday. The difference is in their strategy in getting
there.
National Security Expert
Christopher Swift said ISIS's plan is to "consolidate on the core, and expand on the periphery."
They've created local governing bodies in cities across Iraq and Syria, and expanded into countries like Libya and Yemen.
Al Qaeda, on the other hand, has rarely had territorial control to
build-up. Their strategy has been to attack in other countries, via
small, decentralized terror cells.
The result has ISIS running entire regions of Yemen, while Al Qaeda plans attacks on the sidelines.
"ISIS has married the ideological dictates of global jihad with the
practical realities of local insurgency," Swift said. "Which makes them
more dangerous, more effective, and more resilient than Al Qaeda ever
was."
OUTREACH
Al Qaeda is often perceived in western media as a small, outdated
terror network. The video images broadcasted on mainstream television
are of older men in caves speaking in Arabic, making threats against
their enemies. "Their approach is subtle," Joscelyn said.
That's in contrast to ISIS, which grabs headlines with graphic images
depicting shocking brutality. They use modern technology, Hollywood film
techniques and social media websites to communicate their message (in
English) to the western world, and their followers.
Swift agrees. Everything ISIS does is "packaged, designed, and broadcast to bring people like them, to them."
The latest example, of course, is of the three
British-born female teenagers believed to be heading to Syria to join the terror group.
The larger result? More than 4,000 individuals have been recruited from
the West, and external resources are flowing in to build up ISIS.
SOPHISTICATION
ISIS is successful in warfare because "they build from the bottom up"
says Swift. "There is a hard-core group that has survived 15 years of
warfare."
ISIS fighters are equipped with weapons and years of battlefield
experience, a level of sophistication that Al Qaeda has so far been
unable to attain. They have tanks, ammunition, armoured vehicles, and
artillery shells, many of which are American and highly sophisticated.
The irony, of course, is that ISIS was created as an affiliate of Al
Qaeda in Iraq, before splitting from it in February 2014. With both
groups now operating in Libya, we could soon see a clash between terror
groups vying for top spot.
According to Swift, it's a conflict ISIS seems poised to win. "Al Qaeda
has the message, but not the base … ISIS is what al Qaeda had hoped to
become."
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