The most active terrorist network inside Iraq appears to be operating mostly apart from Al Qaeda, senior American officials say.
Mr Sharif's political stronghold is Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province, where some of the most active terrorist groups have their bases.
Experts consider the distinctions significant since many of the most active terrorist groups in recent years, including Mr. bin Laden's organization, have consisted mainly of Sunnis.
The Red Brigades, Italy's most active terrorist group in the 1970s, kidnapped and killed a former prime minister, Aldo Moro, in 1978 but have been inactive for years.
Egypt's most active terrorist group, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, pledged allegiance to Isis in 2014 and started calling itself Wilayat Sinai.
The journalists added that both bombers were Algerians affiliated with different wings of the terrorist group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb, North Africa's most active terrorist group, which has claimed responsibility for the twin attacks.
The United States has until recently backed Mr. Saleh as an ally in the fight against Al Qaeda, whose Yemeni branch is considered one of the most active terrorist threats against the United States and Europe.
ALGIERS, Sept. 9 (AP) — Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, North Africa's most active terrorist group, on Sunday claimed responsibility for a car bombing that killed 28 coast guard officers in Algeria on Saturday and another recent blast that ripped through a crowd waiting for the Algerian president.
Later, he returned to Yemen as leader of one of the most active Islamic terrorist groups.
Surprisingly, he goes easy on his passion for animal rights, but observes no such restraint when it comes to George Bush ("the world's most famous active terrorist") and Tony Blair, at whose feet he lays the London deaths of 2005.
