*My, that's pretty tough. You need a spreadsheet to name and number the splinter-groups.
(…)
"The Jihadist Threat to Islamic State Expansion
"Though security forces quickly halted the Islamic State’s expansion into Algeria, rival jihadist groups have actually posed the biggest obstacle to the caliphate’s growth elsewhere in the world. In some countries, the Islamic State has succeeded in persuading rank-and-file militants and even occasionally entire jihadist groups to defect to its ranks. More often, the Islamic State has encountered stiff opposition from rival jihadists. The caliphate’s jihadist adversaries often have a strong ground network in place, giving them an advantage over the Islamic State. Frequently outnumbered, the Islamic State has suffered a series of devastating, albeit largely unnoticed, losses to jihadist groups in its near abroad.
"One of the clearest cautionary tales for organizations considering defection to the Islamic State is the implosion of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a well-established jihadist group composed of several hundred militants based in Afghanistan and Pakistan. With a predominantly Central Asian membership, the IMU had close ties to the Taliban and al-Qaeda dating back to the 1990s. But after the Islamic State expanded into Afghanistan, the IMU switched its loyalties and joined the budding caliphate.
"The decision to break with the Taliban proved costly. Shortly after the IMU pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, the Taliban launched an offensive against its erstwhile ally. Many IMU members, including emir Usman Ghazi, decided to seek out a safe haven in Afghanistan’s Zabul province, where Mullah Dadullah led a Taliban splinter faction that maintained a tactical military alliance with the IMU. In November 2015, the Taliban carried out a second operation against the IMU and Dadullah that rapidly overwhelmed these outgunned adversaries. Dadullah and dozens of his family members were killed, as were over 100 IMU fighters. Usman Ghazi was apparently killed or captured by the Taliban, though his exact fate remains unknown.
"The IMU’s precipitous collapse was remarkable, especially considering that the group had been part of the militant landscape in Afghanistan and Pakistan for a couple of decades. An IMU supporter reporting on the group’s destruction on Twitter acknowledged this when he remarked: “What America and its agents could not do in 14 years, the Taliban did in 24 hours.” "...
