After more than a decade of remaining remarkably unified around the elusive figure of Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban are splintering to a degree not seen before, as hundreds of insurgents have shifted their loyalty to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State and self-declared caliph of the Muslim world. - video explainer 
 
 Abu Qatada – who successive British home secretaries tried to deport to Jordan on terror-related charges – has joined Maqdisi as one of the most prominent radical clerics to publicly attack Isis, and his statements of condemnation have been even more scathing. “There’s such a cadre of people so closely tied to the al-Qaida brand within the IC [intelligence community] that I think they don’t see what else is going on outside the organisation,” said Derek Harvey, a former intelligence analyst who predicted how resilient the Iraq insurgency would be. Isis leaders, who described al-Qaida as a “drowned entity” in issue six of their official English-language publication, Dabiq, have declared that they will not tolerate any other jihadi group in territory where they are operating. The race to save Peter Kassig | Ali Younes, Shiv Malik, Spencer Ackerman and Mustafa Khalili Read more 
 
 Qatada, who was once described by the British Special Immigration Appeals Commission as a “truly dangerous individual … at the centre of terrorist activities associated with al‑Qaida”, has a strained, high-pitched voice, like an alto version of Marlon Brando in The Godfather; he speaks slowly, pausing for effect. “It’s basing itself on skills and organisational capabilities and objectives that are much more accelerated and capable than what al-Qaida’s ever had.” 
 
 However misleading, the conflation of the two groups has political and legal benefits for Obama. Zawahiri, Maqdisi said, “operates solely based on allegiance. There is no organisational structure. There is only communication channels, and loyalty.” And unfortunately for Zawahiri, Isis has done its utmost to ensure that loyalty is in short supply. Since declaring the establishment of its so-called Islamic State a year ago, Isis has gone on to build a global network of affiliates and branches that now stretches from Afghanistan to west Africa and competes with al-Qaida in its scale. US officials have warned that al-Qaida’s presence in Yemen, which al-Qaida’s scholars consider to be its most loyal branch, has benefited from the January coup that displaced the US client government and the Saudi-led war to roll it back. When their target appeared, one of the attackers detonated his suicide vest. Against them is what Harvey described as “the overwhelming majority of senior intelligence officials looking at this” who he said considered the enmity between Isis and al-Qaida as little more than “a squabble within”. Three hours later, Isis posted the video on the internet. Qatada, who was born Omar Mahmoud Othman and has been described by the British government as a “truly dangerous individual”, also says Zawahiri is “isolated” and admits that Isis have been winning the propaganda and ground war against al-Qaida. A former senior intelligence official who did not want to speak on the record said they had been tracking the split between the two groups with great attention.
– Al-Qaeda's spiritual leaders say the organization is on the verge of "collapse" while ISIS thrives. The former al-Qaeda branch—booted last year for disobeying Osama bin Laden successor Ayman al-Zawahiri—is attracting money and recruits that have helped it spread from Afghanistan to west Africa, even as an al-Qaeda group in Pakistan sold its laptops and cars to pay for food and rent last year, a former member tells the Guardian. Zawahiri "operates solely based on the allegiance. There is no organizational structure," says jihadi scholar Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi. Abu Qatada, a preacher deported from the UK to Jordan to face terror charges in 2013, agrees Zawahiri is "isolated" and lacks "direct military or operational control." He blames ISIS, which he calls a "cancerous growth" within the jihadi movement. The Guardian reports al-Qaeda's downfall began with Zawahiri's ascension after bin Laden's death. Zawahiri was forced to hide out near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border while fighters that would eventually form ISIS came together in Syria and Iraq. "What is leadership," asks an al-Qaeda associate, "if your leader is in Afghanistan and your soldiers are in Iraq?" Insiders say ISIS, which won't accept another jihadi group in its territory, is winning the propaganda war as well as the war on the ground. The New York Times reported last week that ISIS militants beheaded 10 members of the Taliban. A former intelligence analyst tells the Guardian the US considers ISIS and al-Qaeda to be the same entity and sees the rivalry as "a squabble within." But ISIS is "basing itself on skills and organizational capabilities and objectives that are much more accelerated and capable than what al-Qaeda's ever had."