A Guide To Islamic Extremist Groups

Organization	Location	Mission	Links to other organizations
Al  Qaeda	Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Somalia, Indian subcontinent (recently announced)	According to the writings of Sayyid Qutb, a vanguard movement of righteous Muslims is needed to establish "true Islamic states", implement sharia, and rid the Muslim world of any non-Muslim influences	In February 2014, Al Qaeda announced that it was cutting all ties with Islamic State for its brutality.
Islamic State	Iraq and Syria	Sunni extremist group. As a self-proclaimed caliphate, it claims religious authority over all Muslims worldwide and aims to bring most Muslim-inhabited regions of the world under its political control.	Formed from the consolidation of Al Qaeda Iraq with other Sunni insurgent groups
Khorasan	Syria	Not clear.  It seems to comprise a dozen Afghanistan veterans who are all wanted by the U.S.	Cell backed by Jabhat al-Nusra; “affiliated” with Al Qaeda (according to our State Department)
Jabhat al-Nusra	Syria	Sunni movement that calls for overthrow of Bashar Al-Assad’s government.	Has declared allegiance to Al Qaeda; has fought with IS but at least one al-Nusra branch has pledged allegiance to IS.
Boko Haram	Nigeria	Sunni movement that seeks the establishment of an Islamic state in Nigeria. Kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls, most of whom are still missing.	Declared support for the IS caliphate.  The Obama administration does not consider Boko Haram to be affiliated with central al Qaeda leadership.

I created the table above for my own knowledge.  Since the United States has committed to military involvement in Syria and Iraq, I should at least know who we are fighting and what they stand for. So I compiled some information in papers released by the Congressional Research Service on the organizations that pose a threat to the United States. 

America's ambassador to the UN, Samantha power, argued that Iraq had asked our country to assist in defending itself from Islamic State; that the group was staging attacks from Syria; and that the government of Syria was either unable or unwilling to prevent this.  But rather than striking Islamic State, our first round of attacks were against the Khorasan group, which seems to be one cell of the Jabhat al-Nusra.  As I have discussed previously, the U.S. use-of-force declaration authorizes military force for the threat posed by Iraq.  Islamic State arguably fits that definition.  Although I have only a cursory understanding of the groups involved, Khorasan seems to be distinct from Islamic State.  So our strikes may not have been authorized under our own use-of-force declaration. 

Should all extremist Islamic groups be treated as one? Or should we pay more attention to the differences between groups in deciding who to strike?