Most-wanted terrorists - PHOTO

Al Qaeda.Times have changed, and the terror landscape has changed with it.Public Enemy No. 1, Osama bin Laden, is gone, killed by U.S. commandos in a 2011 Pakistan raid. The group he notoriously commanded no longer dominates. Sure, Ayman al-Zawahiri makes an occasional pronouncement, but other groups have garnered more than their share of chilling headlines for acts such as the failed underwear bomb plot on a Detroit-bound jetliner, the Westgate Mall siege in Kenya and the attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.In short, al Qaeda has a lot more competition these days -- including from groups it inspired, it partners with and that splintered from it.Fifty-nine groups on the U.S. State Department's list of "Foreign Terrorist Organizations." Some of them stand out for what they've said and done in the 13 years since the September 11, 2001, attacks, as well as for how Washington and its allies in the West have reacted to those actions. Here's a look at some of those organizations:ISISWhat is it?How does a group show its hatred for its enemies, America included? How does it prove its willingness to do anything -- even the most heinous acts imaginable -- for its cause? How does it invoke terror, in the basest sense?It acts like ISIS.When it landed on the State Department list in 2004, the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi-led group was known as al Qaeda in Iraq and was known for attacking U.S. and allied forces, assassinating officials and beheading hostages. It suffered blows before being reborn as the Islamic State in Iraq, and later the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, names that signified its new mission: to create a far-reaching caliphate.From 2006: Al-Zarqawi killed in U.S. bombing raidThis shift was accompanied by a fresh focus on things such as providing food, health care and other necessities. Yet its tactics in handling nonbelievers and its foes did not change much.What has it done?ISIS has taken advantage of instability in Syria, where it's become one of the most feared groups trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad, and Iraq, where it has made inroads in opposition to Iraq's unsettled, Shiite-led government, to take over vast swaths of territory.This success has something to do with its appeal to dissatisfied Sunni Muslims. At the same time, a lot of its success stems from its using a brazen, often brutal and heavy-handed approach to force its will. This is an organization, after all, that's been so ruthless even al Qaeda disowned it.That savagery was on display in the recent beheadings of American captives James Foley and Steven Sotloff, journalists who had gone to the Middle East to chronicle war and ended up victims of it -- their gruesome deaths taped and posted online.What's been done about ISIS?In its first incarnation, the group that would become ISIS was a prime target for U.S. forces in Iraq. But after U.S. forces pulled out of Iraq, a power vacuum opened in Syria with the uprising against al-Assad. And when Iraq's military appeared overmatched, the group flexed its muscles yet again.In Iraq, at least, ISIS earlier this summer got pushback from its old foe. U.S. President Barack Obama sent U.S. warplanes back in to punish ISIS fighters. To hear U.S. and Iraqi officials say it, these airstrikes have effectively halted and pushed back the ISIS onslaught. But that's only in Iraq. Obama is among many who have acknowledged the group still has a "safe haven" in Syria.So what's next? On Wednesday night, Obama promised a stepped-up, U.S.-led military campaign to defeat ISIS in Syria as well as Iraq -- opening the door to more U.S. airstrikes, as well as authorizing more American troops to support the Iraqi military in its fight."Our objective is clear: We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counterterrorism strategy," Obama said.(CNN)Bakudaily.Az