edit disagreements where are you getting the figure range for ' ' from i couldn't find these figures in any of the sources you cited unless you're estimating based on predictions from the article abu omar al shishani is not the chief in command of both iraq and syria this is ridiculous i don't know why so many people believe this i suspect it might be becuase he is so prevalent in the is propaganda that he is somehow the islamic state's version of napoleon bonaparte i cannot find any reputable source claiming he is anything more than a field commander in northern syria he doesn't even feature in any is leadership hierarchies which are almost exclusively staffed by iraqis who have been in the organisations since the early mid 's when the former commander of the is military council passed away in june abu abdulrahman al bilawi iraqi secutyi forces found some memory sticks and a laptop containing the following leadership information currently pieced together by western analysts note how al shishani doesn't feature in any of them save one which turned out to be incorrect here they are here is the false one which showed al shishani succeeding al bilawi as the is military chief of the military shura however it was abu ayman al iraqi another is iraqi commander who had been in the organisation years before al shishani had joined who succeeded al bilawi as the chief of the military shura he is shown in the graph as adnan latif hamid al sweidawi which is his real name you never see the upper echelons of the is hierarchy the ones who actually control everything they are not shown in is propaganda they are clandestine mysterious shadowy figures only the pawns are revealed you keep stating that jamaat ul ahrar have pledged allegiance to the islamic state this is just not true you might get this impression becuase they broke away from the ttp or the pakistani taliban which swear allegiance to the head of the afghan taliban mullah omar but the spokesperson for jamaat ul ahrar stated that they pledged allegiance to the taliban leader the leader of jamaat ul ahrar omar khalid has strong ties to ayman al zawahiri and al qaeda a nemesis to the islamic state you state that abu sayyaf have sworn allegiance to the islamic state however the man who swore allegiance to them is not the groups leader so it is unclear whether or not he is representing abu sayyaf or a splinter faction you write that ansar al islam is an al qaeda affiliate but i can find little to no proof affirming this position the leadership of ansar al islam have rejected the notion that they swear allegiance to al qaeda despite collaborating with their affiliates such as the al nusra front u s terrorism expert rohan gunaratna in january however disagreed with krekar and affirmed links of ansar with al qaeda ansar al islam has links with al qaeda in fact it is an associate group of al qaeda the u s defense intelligence agency seemed to have affirmed this when they wrote ansar al islam is an independent organization that receives assistance from al qaeda but is not a branch of the group dia special analysis july cited in postwar findings about iraq's wmd programs and links to terrorism and how they compare with prewar assessments pg