As core al-Qaida weakened, its successors spread
Osama bin Laden is dead and al-Qaida dispersed, yet the horrors keep coming.
Western hostages beheaded on camera. School girls abducted by gunmen in the night. Families fleeing their homes in fear they might be killed because of their religion. The news from much of the Middle East and Africa is relentlessly brutal.
The Islamic State group's rampage through Iraq and Syria has shocked the United States into launching expanded air strikes at a time when Americans were expecting to pull back from the Middle East after more than a decade of war.
Meanwhile, like-minded militants are gunning people down and blowing them up on a smaller scale in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Nigeria, Somalia and beyond.
While the 13-year US campaign against al-Qaida tamped down its core leadership, the terror group's followers, offshoots and wannabes have spread.
"They're attracting more troops to these individual jihads than al-Qaida was ever able to attract in the past," said Andrew Liepman, former deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center. "The movement is still alive."
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