The group, in a message dated July 4, also reiterated allegiance to overall al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-
Zawahiri... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as
the real brains of the outfit.Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is...
, whose leadership appears to have been challenged by the recently declared Islamic State, according to the U.S.-based monitoring group.
It said there was still time "to rectify the defect in this announcement".
The Islamic State (IS) has been fighting in Syria and Iraq and on June 29 proclaimed a "caliphate" straddling both countries and headed by His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us...
, who now calls himself Caliph Ibrahim.
IS fighters spearheaded a devastating military offensive by a coalition of Sunni Death Eater groups that swept through large swathes of northern and western Iraq.
"Why today... do they make such an announcement without the advice of the leaders of the mujahedeen... (whose) efforts to establish the rightly guided Caliphate were proven?" the statement asked.
AQIM urged consultations among the leaders of various al-Qaeda factions, including Zawahiri and Baghdadi, to "fix the defects inside the one house, away from the media".
"We confirm that we still adhere to our pledge of allegiance to our sheikh and emir, Ayman al-Zawahiri, since it is a sharia- (Islamic law) accorded pledge of allegiance," it said.
Zawahiri in the past ordered Baghdadi to confine the work of his group to Iraq only, and designated its rival Al-Nusra Front as al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria.
But Baghdadi has refused to budge.
