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Ahmed Abdi Godane, also known as
Mukhtar Abu Zubayr, had been one
of America's most-wanted terrorists
After Osama's Death

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:

ISIS
What 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 raid
This 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.
The first terror group to build an Islamic
state?
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.
Obama: 'No safe haven' for ISIS in Syria or anywhere else

AL-SHABAAB
What is it?
Al-Shabaab, which translates as "The
Youth" in Arabic, emerged in the 2000s as
the upstart faction of a bin Laden-funded
group called al-Ittihad al-Islami that sought
to create an Islamist emirate in Somalia.
In 2006, this new group and its ally, the
Islamic Courts Union, took over Mogadishu
and stirred fears it would move into
neighboring countries. That threat spurred
Ethiopia to enter Somalia that year, ousting
the ICU from power. Other international
troops would follow, including from Kenya
and the African Union.
All this put Al-Shabaab on its heels, but it
never went away. In fact, it appeared to
become more radicalized and international
in scope. No longer was Al-Shabaab
focused just on Somalia; rather, it has
increasingly lashed out at other
governments as well as civilians outside its
native country.
What has it done?
Southern and central Somalia have been Al-Shabaab's
hotbed for years, with the group exercising control
there by "recruiting, sometimes forcibly, regional
subclans and their militias, using guerrilla warfare and
terrorist tactics," the U.S. National Counterterrorism
Center reports.
Yet, more and more, Al-Shabaab has looked beyond
the East African country for friends and targets.
In 2012, the group's then-leader, Ahmed Godane,
pledged allegiance to al Qaeda and announced his
followers "will march with (al Qaeda) as loyal soldiers."
By then, Al-Shabaab already had killed over 70 people
in twin suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, during
the 2010 World Cup final. Afterward, Godane warned:
"What happened in Kampala was just the beginning."
Ruthless leader aimed to extend reach, eyed West
Al-Shabaab has been true to his promise. That includes
killing activists, aid workers, journalists and attacking
places frequented by foreigners. The most high-profile attack occurred last fall, when its militants casually
walked into the upscale Westgate Mall in Nairobi,
Kenya, then began gunning down shoppers -- allegedly torturing some hostages before killing them. The four-day long siege ended with as many as 67 dead and parts of the mall destroyed.
What's been done about it?
The United States hasn't been directly attacked by Al- Shabaab, but it has made it a priority. In 2011, then U.S.
Africa Command head Gen. Carter Ham said "the
greatest risks risks right now in East Africa are Al-
Shabaab and the violent extremists that they
represent."
Even if it hasn't deployed ground troops, Washington has used its military might against al-Shabaab. The latest instance came this month, when U.S. drones and commandos used "Hellfire missiles and laser-guided missiles" to kill Godane, a man who rose to power after a 2008 U.S. airstrike killed his predecessor.
The United States hasn't been doing it alone. Its allies include not only the Somali government but those in Ethiopia and Kenya, plus the African Union. According to the U.S. government, together these allies have made significant inroads in beating back the group.

AL QAEDA IN THE ARABIAN PENINSULA
(AQAP)

Osama bin Laden was the son of a Yemeni
man and grew up in Saudi Arabia. So it is
noteworthy the organization he led has
found some of its greatest strength, and
successes, in the Arabian Peninsula.
Like its namesake, Al Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula, or AQAP as it is widely known,
consists of Sunni Muslim extremists who
want to unseat local authorities and who
are willing and able to strike out at the West, in the West.
The group has taken advantage of political
instability in Yemen to gain a foothold there as a home base and place to carry out its plans since its creation in 2009, when Yemeni and Saudi extremists decided to join forces under the leadership of emir Nasir al-Wahishi. But it's also made a big splash internationally -- whether through its high-profile plots; its glossy,
Western-style magazine and propaganda tool, Inspire; or the fact one of its most well-known members, Anwar al-Awlaki, was American.
What has it done?
While Yemen has been affiliated with al Qaeda for
years (the deadly 2000 attack on the USS Cole), it
became a focal point in 2009 because of two incidents: The first, in November, was the shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, by U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who had exchanged emails with al-Awlaki. Then, on
Christmas Day, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab -- who later acknowledged having traveled to Yemen and being "greatly inspired" by al-Awlaki "to avenge the killing of innocent Muslims" -- tried unsuccessfully to detonate explosives in his underwear on an Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight.

BOKO HARAM

Boko Haram's stance on the West is as
clear as its name, which translates from
the Hausa language as "Western education
is forbidden." This isn't an education
reform group, though, but one with a
terrifying history of killings, bombings and
mass abductions.
Twelve years ago, a charismatic cleric
named Mohammed Yusuf formed Boko
Haram to further his push for a pure Islamic
state in Nigeria. Police killed him in 2009,
and some say the resulting crackdown on
his group did more to embolden Yusuf's
followers than weaken them.
In 2010 statements soon after new leader
Abubakar Shekau took over, he aligned his
group with al Qaeda and threatened the
West. True to his word, his group has killed
at least 25 people in a suicide attack on a
United Nations building, as well as killed
and kidnapped Westerners elsewhere.
What makes Boko Haram different from some other
groups, however, is that its anti-Western actions have
been confined to Nigeria.
What has it done?
Kill. Burn. Kidnap. And, where it can, govern under its
strict interpretation of Sharia law.
Boko Haram fighters have spent years battling Nigerian
troops, mostly in the country's north and east. The
group has also killed civilians -- including in Jos, Kano
and the capital Abuja -- in bombings on crowded
markets and attacks on otherwise peaceful villages.
The act for which Boko Haram is probably best known
internationally is its abduction of over 230 schoolgirls
earlier this year from the town of Chibook in
northeastern Nigeria. A man claiming to be Shekau
vowed later in a video that he'd sell the girls "in the
market."
But to define what Boko Haram has done by this single act understates the amount of terror it's inflicted over the years, particularly in northeastern Nigeria. Its targets have been Christians, government officials and troops and Muslims who don't subscribe to its beliefs or way of doing things. Its approach has been to show no mercy, as its members rampage through villages,
kidnap women and children, and assassinate
politicians and religious leaders.

As the most destabilizing element in Africa's most
populous nation -- a country of 175 million people, not to mention vast oil reserves -- Boko Haram cannot be easily ignored. The audacity of its tactics has stirred many worldwide, from Australia to Zambia, against it, as exemplified in the " Bring Back Our Girls" campaign.
This widespread disdain notwithstanding, Boko Haram has not been subject to a large-scale, large-impact international military campaign.
Yes, the United States has put a $7 million bounty on Shekau's head, given technical and financial support to Nigerian teams battling the insurgency and even flown unarmed surveillance aircraft over Nigeria looking for the missing schoolgirls. But it hasn't offered more direct support for a few reasons.
For one, there's a sense that Boko Haram may not pose a direct threat to U.S. security. And second, U.S. law restricts the country's ability to work with Nigeria's military that has been accused of war crimes and other abuses, a senior State Department official has said.