In 2011, AQAP created Ansar Al-Sharia as a Yemen-based affiliate focused on waging an insurgency rather than international attacks on the West. In the view of the
International Crisis Group, AQAP is "an internally diverse organisation with varying layers of support among the local population" and many AAS members and allies are not committed to AQAP's international agenda. On 4 October 2012, the
United States Department of State amended its list of
Foreign Terrorist Organizations to designate Ansar al-Sharia in Yemen as an alias for
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, rather than listing it as a separate organisation. On the same day, the group was also listed by the United Nations 1267/1989
Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee. New Zealand also listed it as a terror group. In February 2015, it was reported that some members had split from the group and pledged allegiance to the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. In 2017, AQAP and AAS were in a struggle for territorial control with both
Houthi and
Saleh forces in the governorates of al-Bayda, Shebwa, Marib, Jawf and Taiz. ==References==