(CNN) --
From around Aleppo in western Syria to small areas of Falluja in central Iraq, al Qaeda now controls territory that
stretches more than 400 miles across the heart of the Middle
East, according to English and Arab language news accounts as well
as accounts on jihadist websites.
Indeed,
al Qaeda appears to control more territory in the Arab world than it has done
at any time in its history.
The focus
of al Qaeda's leaders has always been regime change in the Arab world in order
to install Taliban-style regimes. Al Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri
acknowledged as much in his 2001 autobiography, "Knights Under the Banner
of the Prophet," when he explained that the most important strategic goal
of al Qaeda was to seize control of a state, or part of a state, somewhere in
the Muslim world, explaining that, "without achieving this goal our
actions will mean nothing."
Now
al-Zawahiri is closer to his goal than he has ever been. On Friday al-Qaeda's
affiliate in Iraq seized control of parts of the city of Falluja
and parts of the city of Ramadi, both of which
are located in Iraq's
restive Anbar Province. . . . . . .
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