Airstrike kills al-Qaeda leader in Syria

Tom Vanden Brook | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Source claims U.S. airstrike kills al-Qaeda leader in Syria U.S. officials say a key al-Qaeda figure has been killed in an American airstrike in Syria. The officials claim that Muhsin al-Fadhli, a leader of the al-Qaeda affiliated Khorasan Group, is dead.

WASHINGTON – The leader of the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria with a history of attacks against U.S. targets was killed in a U.S. airstrike on July 8, the Pentagon announced Tuesday.

Muhsin al-Fadhli, who led the Khorasan Group in Syria, was killed when the vehicle he was riding in northwest Syria near the Turkish border, was destroyed, said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.

The Khorasan was targeted last September when the U.S.-led coalition launched the initial airstrikes in Syria. Their camps were struck by Tomahawk missiles fired from ships in the Mediterranean. At the time, U.S. officials said Khorasan, an al-Qaeda offshoot, was in the final stages of preparing attacks on American or European targets.

The group's sophisticated bomb-making acumen has been a particular concern of military officials. Al-Fadhli had deep roots with al-Qaeda, having been one of the few operatives who had received advance notice of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Davis said in a statement.

Al-Fadhli was killed by a missile fired by a drone, according to a Defense Department official who spoke about the strike on condition of anonymity. The airstrike targeted the specific vehicle he was traveling in based on intelligence, the official said.

Khorasan is viewed by the Pentagon as a more direct threat to Americans than the Islamic State, the official said, because they are “singularly focused on attacking” Western targets. The official compared Khorasan to the Pentagon’s advanced research arm, DARPA, saying the al-Qaeda group is trying to come up with imaginative ways of attacking the West.

At the time of last year’s strikes on Khorasan, it was believed that they were preparing non-metallic bombs designed to slip past magnetic detectors and be detonated on airliners.

He also directed terrorist attacks in October 2002 against that killed a U.S. Marine in in Kuwait and on a French vessel. "His death will degrade and disrupt ongoing external operations of al-Qaeda against the United States and our allies and partners," Davis said.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Intelligence panel, said al-Fadhli won't be easily replaced.

"This successful operation proves yet again that the U.S. will work tirelessly to remove terrorists from the battlefield, even in the most challenging environments," Schiff said in a statement.