Five senior Taliban leaders in Pakistan swore allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS) and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi earlier this week - the latest in a series of regional leaders of local Islamist extremist groups pledging to the international terror organization. The organization's spokesman, reading the oath on audio tape, noted that Pakistani Taliban leader had expressed support for the Islamic state, but has not yet published the official pledge of allegiance. Recently, the Pakistani terrorist organization announced it would send jihadists to ISIS in Iraq and Syria to help consolidate its rule and continue the fight to establish an Islamist Caliphate. The Taliban controls large areas of northern Pakistan and was involved in numerous terrorist attacks against the regime in the last decade, including an attempt to seize power. This is not the first terror organization abroad to declare loyalty to ISIS - either formally or informally. In the Sinai Peninsula, the Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis group - which has been waging an ongoing war with the Egyptian Army - has been staging ISIS 'copycat' beheadings and is thought to have declared de facto loyalty to the group. And earlier this month, the Ansar al-Sharia group in Libya declared loyalty to ISIS , driving through the strategic city of Darna in tanks with ISIS flags and announcing their allegiance to a gathering in the town square. ISIS has stated on multiple occasions that it wishes to see "the whole world" under a terror reign, including the West and Israel .
