Here's Al Qaeda's two-pronged global strategy:
#1. Maintain pinprick military contact (i.e. 1 or 2 deaths per day in as many parts of the world as possible) while massaging the news media into convincing the West to surrender and retreat, and
#2. Widen the global terror war by tricking Western Powers into attacking Neutral Islamic nations (e.g. India attacking Pakistan, U.S. attacking Iran, Israel attacking Syria, etc.).