re: #174 NJDhockeyfan

They are carrying an al-Qaeda flag. They are terrorists.

It’s not an AQ flag, it’s a Jihadi flag. AQ split with them back mid-February. Furthermore, Islamist, Jihadist, insurgent, and terrorist aren’t synonymous, interchangeable terms, regardless of how you may feel about them personally.

Al-Qaeda disavows any ties with radical Islamist ISIS group in Syria, Iraq

BEIRUT — Al-Qaeda formally dissociated itself from its onetime affiliate in Iraq and Syria on Monday, culminating months of feuding and exposing the dwindling influence of the group’s leadership over an emerging new generation of radicals.

The repudiation of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria came after the failure of repeated efforts
by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to heal a dispute between ISIS and the officially anointed al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra that has erupted in fighting in parts of rebel-held northern Syria.

ISIS “is not a branch of the al-Qaeda group . . . does not have an organizational relationship with it and [al-Qaeda] is not the group responsible for their actions,” al-Qaeda’s General Command said in a statement, marking the first time the leadership has formally repudiated an affiliate.

The rejection means that al-Qaeda no longer has representation in Iraq, where ISIS originated and where it has rebounded in recent months from the setbacks inflicted by U.S. troops to pose a significant challenge to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s control over the country. […]

washingtonpost.com