Julani then appealed to the world’s preeminent jihadist, al-Qaeda’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to settle the dispute. The longtime deputy of Osama bin Laden had famously quarreled with Zarqawi over beheadings and other shock-theater tactics, and the old Egyptian had been equally unhappy with Zarqawi’s successors. On June 9, 2013, Zawahiri published an open letter, ordering a halt to the merger and scolding Baghdadi for attempting such a thing without consulting with him first. In an astonishing rebuke, he decreed that Baghdadi would be on probation for a year as leader of the Islamic State of
...more
