REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, Al Qaeda dismissed as "lies" a US assessment that it is in decline, but a defiant online message issued by the network on Sunday made no mention of the ultra-hardline Islamic State group widely seen as its rival for the leadership of global jihad.

"Whatever slip-ups or errors (regional branches)...may have committed are limited in number in the midst of mountains of good deeds and successes," said Hossam Abdul Raouf, an Egyptian veteran of the militant group. He said compensation and apologies had been given to unintended victimism but gave no details.

Raouf, who served under assassinated leader Osama Bin Laden, said the group was expanding across the world.

Al Qaeda faces a challenge to its leadership of the radical Islamist struggle with the West by the Islamic State group, and may be seeking to burnish its credentials as its rival girds for a fight to protect land it has seized in Iraq and Syria.

The United States and Arab neighbors pledged to fight IS last week, and American warplanes have pounded its positions in Iraq for over a month.

Islamic State's declaration of a "caliphate," or religious state over its lands has not been recognized by al Qaeda, which has produced a series of videos in recent weeks detailing its own activities but shying away from criticizing IS.

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