‘America has taken on a foe 5,000-strong. It has killed 10,000 of them. There are only 20,000 left’

‘America has taken on a foe 5,000-strong. It has killed 10,000 of them. There are only 20,000 left’

There is something alarming, however, about the boasts of success. For all the deaths and injuries of top leaders, Al-Qaeda and Islamic State now control more territory than they have ever done. The hydra has simply grown more heads. 

The civil war in Yemen, between the Iran-backed Houthis and the western-backed recognised government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, has allowed Wuhayshi’s Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to extend its control. 

Al-Qaeda – through its local affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra – and Isil control more than half of Syrian territory, in terms of raw geography (population is a different matter). 

Isil controls western Iraq, and parts of Libya. 

Last month, a senior US state department official defended America’s conduct of the various “wars on terror” by claiming that 10,000 Isil jihadis had been killed since last summer.