Are You Legally at War With Al Qaeda?

There is a concept in the laws of war called kobeligerency. It's the idea that if you're at war with someone A, and person B is on person A's side in the war, you're also legally at war with person B. The problem obviously is that we're not talking about nation states anymore. We're talking about groups. So okay, how close does the link to Al Qaeda and the people who carried out September 11th have to be? Or can you be an associate and an associate?