Members of al Qaeda's Nusra Front carry their weapons as they move towards their positions near al-Zahra village, north of Aleppo city, November 25, 2014. (Photo by Hosam Katan/Reuters)





Nusra Front is a powerful rebel group comprised of both Syrians and foreign militants and has been formally recognized by the central leadership of al Qaeda as its franchise in Syria. (Photo by Hosam Katan/Reuters)





The group was pushed out of Mogadishu by African peacekeeping forces in 2011 but has waged a series of gun and grenade attacks to try to overthrow the government and impose its strict version of sharia law. Caption: A Somali police officer (R) arrests a suspected rebel member (L) of al Shabaab among beach goers at the Lido beach north of Somalia's capital Mogadishu, March 23, 2012. (Photo by Feisal Omar/Reuters)





Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front fighters carry their weapons on the back of a pick-up truck during the release of Lebanese soldiers and policemen in Arsal, eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)





A Somali-based militant group officially affiliated to core al Qaeda. Caption: Members of al Shabaab distribute relief to famine-stricken internally displaced people at Ala Yaasir camp September 3, 2011. (Photo by Feisal Omar/Reuters)





The leader of Nusra Front Abu Mohamad al-Golani tried unsuccessfully at a recent meeting to convince rival Islamist factions to merge into one unit. But he made clear that Nusra would not cut its ties with al Qaeda, and its allegiance would remain to Ayman al-Zawahri, who took over as leader after U.S. Navy SEALS killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. (Photo by Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)





Members of al Shabaab display the body of one of seven suspected Burundian peacekeepers from the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) who were killed during clashes in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, February 24, 2011. (Photo by Feisal Omar/Reuters)





A member of al Qaeda's Nusra Front carries his weapon as he stands in an olive tree field in the southern countryside of Idlib. (Photo by Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)





A Sunni Muslim group that claims to be subordinate to the main global militant organization and has expanded during Yemen's civil war. Caption: Suspected al Qaeda militant holds his head as he stands with co-defendants behind bars at the state security court of appeals in Sanaa. (Photo by Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)





In 2008 the U.S. designated al Shabaab a foreign terrorist organization. Caption: Men suspected to be from al Shabaab are guarded at a former police station by soldiers of the Somali National Army (SNA) as engineers serving with the Kenyan Contingent of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) searched the premises for improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the southern Somali port city of Kismayu, October 3, 201. (Photo by Stuart Price/Reuters/African Union-United Nations Information Support Team)





Viewed by Western analysts as the most dangerous arm of al Qaeda, AQAP claimed responsibility for the deadly January 2015 attack in Paris on the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo. Caption: Policemen stand by a tourist's car at the site of a suspected al-Qaeda car bomb attack in the Yemeni province of Marib July 3, 2007. (Photo by Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)





People look at a man, who residents said was killed by al Qaeda militants, hanging on a bridge in Yemen's southeastern city of Mukalla June 17, 2015. Al Qaeda militants in Yemen killed two alleged Saudi spies, residents said, accusing them of planting tracking devices which enabled the assassination of the group's leader in a suspected U.S. drone strike. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)





Mansour Dalil (L), an al-Qaeda suspect, reacts after a verdict was announced at a state security court sentencing him to death in Sanaa, Yemen, July 7, 2010. The court sentenced Dalil and co-defendant Mubarak al-Shabwani (R) to death for killing senior security officers in attacks last year. (Photo by Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)





A Chadian soldier embraces a former child soldier of insurgent group Boko Haram in Ngouboua, Chad, April 22, 2015. The young men said they were Chadian nationals forced to join Boko Haram while studying the Koran in Nigeria, and that they escaped and turned themselves in to Chadian authorities. (Photo by Moumine Ngarmbassa/Reuters)





The logo of insurgent group Boko Haram is seen on the cracked windshield of an armored vehicle which Chadian military say they destroyed in battle in Gambaru, February 26, 2015. (Photo by Emmanuel Braun/Reuters)





A girl and her mother rescued from Boko Haram in Sambisa forest by Nigerian military arrive at the Internally displaced people's camp in Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria, May 2, 2015. (Photo by Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters)





A man, whom the Chadian military say they have taken prisoner for belonging to insurgent group Boko Haram, is seen in Gambaru, February 26, 2015. Accused of killing five people the way Boko Haram does, cutting their throat with a knife, the soldiers gave him a nickname: “The Butcher”. (Photo by Emmanuel Braun/Reuters)