The growing prospect of western-backed military intervention to reverse the spread of Islamism in west Africa is good news for an evolving al-Qaida movement.
For five months Mali has been divided into the South, ruled by a fragile government, and the North, which includes the historic cities of Timbuktu and Gao and is the theatre of the Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s expansion in the Sahel.
One of the primary arguments against arming the Syrian rebels is that their lack of organization and centralized command means that the weapons could fall into the hands of Islamist militants and terrorists in their ranks.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula may have been pushed back in Yemen, but it is not defeated.