Another edition of the jihadi soap opera, “As The Caliphate Turns”.

Via Daily Mail:

Somali terror group Al-Shabaab could soon scrap its allegiance to Al-Qaeda and pledge loyalty to rivals ISIS instead, MailOnline has learned.

Islamic State invited the east-African jihadi group to join forces with them through a propaganda video released in March – urging it to wage jihad on neighbouring Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania.

Now Al-Shabaab members and sources within the Somali army suggest the invitation will be accepted and the group – which commands around 9,000 fighters – will soon extend ISIS’s self-proclaimed caliphate to east-Africa.

The decision comes at a time when many of Al-Shabaab’s local and foreign leaders are being killed by commando raids and drone strikes, the group is rapidly losing territory and its money is running out as a result.

Al-Shabaab’s senior figures held a secret meeting in the Middle Juba region – just over 200 miles away from the capital of Mogadishu – earlier this week, one of its commanders told MailOnline.

He said: ‘It is still an ongoing process to reach a final decision in the next weeks and months… We [the leaders] are now on same boat.

‘I do not want to comment about why [Al-Shabaab] is willing to leave and cut ties with al-Qaeda and its leader Ayman al-Zawihiri.’