How has ISIS become much more influential than Al Qaeda?

Al Qaeda is weaker and less dynamic than the Islamic State, but the former remains more focused on attacking the United States and its Western allies. .... And now that American military advisers are on the ground in Iraq supporting the Iraqi military, the U.S. read more

In my opinion, Al-Qaeda is playing a much smarter game than the Islamic State and will once again become the dominant terrorist group. While the Islamic State truly succeeded in getting the world to go against it, Al Qaeda is smart in picking its battles. read more

The experts outlined four primary reasons ISIS is a more serious threat than al-Qaeda. First, ISIS is a “self-generated, fully-fledged, transnational insurgency,” which is much more than a mere terrorist group, said Dr. Sebastian Gorka, chair of military theory at Marine Corps University. read more

Al Qaeda has long favored large-scale, dramatic attacks against strategic or symbolic targets: The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11 are the most prominent, but the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the attack on U.S.S. Cole in the port of Aden in 2000, and plots like the 2005 attempt to down over 10 transatlantic flights all show an emphasis on the spectacular. read more