The story
What names should I know?
al-Qaeda
...The Godfather of terror groups.
in the late ‘80s, and responsible for the 9/11 attacks.
are to install Islamic governments, and get rid of any Western influence along the way. Post 9/11, the West fought back -- and since then,
Taliban
...Afghanistan has 99 problems and the Taliban is number one. This is the Islamist extremist group that basically ran Afghanistan in the 90s and that -- bonus! --
. It also provided a safe-haven to al-Qaeda, which is why the US took the group down after the 9/11 attacks. Since then, the
in rural Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan, where it enforces lovely things like
AQAP
...al-Qaeda’s affiliates in
got married and called themselves al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- or AQAP. They claimed responsibility for the 2015 terror
in Paris and are considered
to the West. Plus they're taking advantage of
al-Shabab
...al-Qaeda’s Somali cousins. You know them as the ones responsible for several large attacks in the past few years. They orchestrated a
mall attack in Kenya’s capital
in 2013, and the 2015 attack that killed 148 people on a college campus there. In 2016, they
in Somalia, reportedly killing 180. Al-Shabab’s MO? Enforcing Islam, while killing others along the way -- in the college attack, the gunmen
al-Nusra Front
...A Syrian rebel group that got together to
fight President Bashar al-Assad
. It’s also pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda. They’re in the
ISIS
...or ISIL or IS. It’s the P. Diddy of terror groups, always changing to a worse name. And they're responsible for many of the terrorist
in recent years. Al-Qaeda decided in 2014 that it was
to hang out with. So there’s that. The group spent a lot of time grabbing territory across the Mideast, terrorizing minorities, and beheading Westerners, all while attempting to build an Islamic State. This led the US and friends to
. A few years later, the war isn't over yet, but
Boko Haram
...Attention hogs based in Nigeria. The group killed
people there in 2015. It’s also infamous for kidnapping
more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls
. And they've pledged allegiance to ISIS. The Nigerian gov has had trouble fighting the group. Like that time their air force
Hamas
...A Palestinian militant group that doubles as a political party. It controlled the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory, for years. The group’s platform?
, and establish a Palestinian state. No surprise, this hasn’t gone over well with Israel. The two have a long history of violence and war. Iran’s been Hamas's longtime sugar daddy, despite a
Hezbollah
...All roads lead to Iran with this Lebanon-based group.
Iran backs Syria’s President Assad
,
. Iran wants Israel gone,
Haqqani Network
...They’re the Sopranos of terrorism -- a
insurgent group with ties to Afghanistan
Khorasan Group
...The al-Qaeda All Stars tour that operates
. It’s considered a big, scary deal because the group is focused on
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