By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 25 March 2026
Islamic State Attacks Al-Qaeda as a Member of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance”
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Tag Archives: Sayf al-Adl
Fourth Speech of Islamic State Spokesman Abu Hudhayfa al-Ansari
Islamic State Mocks the Losses of Iran and HAMAS
Islamic State Khorasan Province is Looking More Dangerous
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: Bringing the Islamic State to Saddam’s Iraq and Joining Al-Qaeda
Islamic State Attacks Iran and Many Iranians Ask: Did it Really?
Al-Qaeda Leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is Dead: Ramifications and Implications
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 2 August 2022
Osama bin Laden (L) sits with his adviser Ayman al-Zawahiri (R). Credit: Getty
United Nations Report Finds Al-Qaeda and Islamic State Reduced, But Reviving
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 30 July 2022
Islamic State in Palmyra, December 2016
The Death of Al-Qaeda’s Leaders and the Iran Factor
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 16 November 2020
This article was originally published at European Eye on Radicalization
Credible reports over the last few days indicate that Al-Qaeda’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is dead, and there are even clearer reports that two of his most senior deputies have been killed. The terrorist network itself, however, will survive. Al-Qaeda has, in the last ten years, survived the killing of its charismatic founder Usama bin Laden, the upheaval of the “Arab spring”, and the rise of the Islamic State (IS)—all of them greater challenges than whatever short-term turbulence might attend the succession process.
Continue readingExamining Iran’s Long Relationship with Al-Qaeda
This article was originally published at The Brief
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 26 October 2018
At the beginning of September, New America published a paper, based on recovered al-Qaeda documents, which concluded that there was “no evidence of cooperation” between the terrorist group and the Islamic Republic of Iran. New America’s study lauds itself for taking an approach that “avoids much of the challenge of politicization” in the discussion of Iran’s relationship with al-Qaeda. This is, to put it mildly, questionable.
A narrative gained currency in certain parts of the foreign policy community during the days of the Iraq war, and gained traction since the rise of the Islamic State (IS) in 2014, that Iran can be a partner in the region, at least against (Sunni) terrorism, since Tehran shares this goal with the West. Under President Barack Obama, this notion became policy: the US moved to bring Iran’s revolutionary government in from the cold, to integrate it into the international system. Continue reading
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