Al-Qaida's India wing: Rival ISIS pushes Zawahiri to look for new frontiers?

NEW DELHI: Ayman al Zawahiri's declaration that al-Qaida was opening a South Asia branch office has evoked several questions: Why now? Is al-Qaida losing ground to ISIS? How dangerous is al-Qaida when ISIS is hogging headlines?

Zawahiri's announcement should be seen in the context of the growing competition between al-Qaida and Abu Bakr al Baghdadi's ISIS. Building an Islamic caliphate has been an al-Qaida dream. Unfortunately, competition has taken the title over. This June ISIS declared a "caliphate" and Baghdadi took the title of Caliph Ibrahim, posing a serious threat to al-Qaida. From its stunning military successes in Iraq and Syria to the shocking killings of US journalists, ISIS turned its rival's business model on its head. This February, al-Qaida expelled ISIS from its fold.