Al-Qaeda Turns Its Gaze to Bangladesh

The fluidity and flexibility of al Qaeda is undergoing a defining test in Syria, where two of its affiliates, the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), are engaged in a full-scale conflict with each other. Suicide attacks, mass executions, and random bombardment of disputed areas have rendered the conflict indistinguishable in its scope and violence from the presumably central confrontation between regime and opposition. Beyond the depletion of its ranks, al Qaeda also faces a severe challenge to its credibility, due to the abject failure in governance in the areas under its affiliates' control. Yet, in the midst of this, the jihadist cyberspace witnessed the circulation of a recording by al Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri on a so-far unexplored topic: Bangladesh.