Is The U.S. War Against The Islamic State Helping Al Qaeda?

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi vs. al-Zawahiri. (AFP)

Nancy Youssef & Shane Harris, Daily Beast: America’s ISIS War Is Helping al Qaeda

U.S. intelligence and defense officials are increasingly worried their fight against the self-declared Islamic State is benefitting al Qaeda, ISIS’ 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 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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WNU Editor: It appears that the U.S. has made the decision that Al Qaeda is the lesser of the two evils.