Over the past six months, a fierce competition in the terror world has risen to surface as the Islamic State has seen its popularity skyrocket, threatening the old dominant force – al-Qaeda. The two groups are vying for the leadership of the global jihadi movement, which for nearly two decades was guided by Osama bin Laden.

The infamous face of terror was succeeded by his number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who inherited leadership over the group’s global terror operations.

But following a heated exchange between Zawahiri and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi – the leader of the Islamic State in Syria and al-Sham – over the brutal behavior exhibited by the latter’s group and its leader’s insubordination, Zawahiri excommunicated ISIS from  breaking their alliance.

Baghdadi’s challenge to Zawahiri’s leadership reached its climax when the former unilaterally declared himself as Caliph, the political successor to Muhammad – thereby elevating his status above Zawahiri.

The new reality forced international jihadi groups to pick sides in an internal conflict. So far, most of the large, organized groups – especially those already allied to al-Qaeda – like al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, al-Shabaab, and Jabhat al-Nusra have reasserted their allegiance to Zawahiri.

Read the article in full at Ynet.