A bullet, a knife, a car, a rock

in their bases in the Middle East and Africa.

The rivalry took a vicious turn in Paris in January. Al-Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate claimed responsibility after gunmen slaughtered the staff of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo — the most daring attack on the West in years by a group that had begun to be seen, in jihadi terms, as a bit graying and cautious compared with the socialmedia-savvy IS.

Some analysts believe that Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the IS operative who officials say orchestrated the Paris killings a week ago, saw the January attack as an urgent challenge to do something bigger.

Abaaoud is believed to have been entrusted with starting an IS campaign in Europe, but his earliest attempts failed, including an attack on a Paris-bound train thwarted when passengers overpowered the gunman. His mentor, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, a leader of the group, appeared to increase the pressure, taunting Muslims who failed to use any available means — “a bullet, a knife, a car, a rock” — to shed “crusader blood”. After months of trying, Abaaoud pulled off last week’s attacks — which, in turn, some supporters of al-Qaeda saw as something to be surpassed with a more moral approach, taking care to limit the deaths of Muslim civilians.

The Mali gunmen weeded out Muslims by demanding that hostages recite verses from the Koran to be freed.

“Lions who carried out #MaliAttack separated Muslims from Christian in order2 protect the inviolable blood of Muslims,” a supporter wrote on Twitter.

On September 11 2001, al-Qaeda seized the world’s attention with a spectacular act of terrorism. But in recent years, it has been eclipsed by IS, which dazzled jihadis by swiftly conquering territory in Syria and the Soufan Group. “The guys in Mali saw a big opportunity to remind everyone that they are still relevant.” For both al-Qaeda and IS, killing civilians has been a tactic and a strategy. But they disagree over just how