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U.S. Can’t Confirm Death Of Khorasan Group Leader: Rice

U.S. Can’t Confirm Death Of Khorasan Group Leader: Rice

Washington (AFP) — U.S. airstrikes in Syria have had an “important impact,” U.S. national security adviser Susan Rice said Wednesday, but it is unclear if they have killed the head of the Khorasan group, an Al-Qaeda offshoot.

The strikes by U.S. warplanes and cruise missiles targeted the Islamic State movement as well as the little-known Khorasan group, which Washington said has said was plotting attacks against U.S. targets.

“We think the strikes had an impact, important impact,” Rice told NBC news, 36 hours after Washington expanded its bombing campaign from Iraq to Syria, backed by allies in the region.

“Obviously, this won’t be the last of our efforts. But this was a first wave.”

She added: “We feel very good about our success. We’ll continue to take a look and we’ll be doing more.”

Rice said the United States at this point is unable to confirm that the airstrikes succeeded in killing Khorasan’s alleged leader, long-standing Qaeda operative Muhsin al-Fadhli.

“We can’t confirm that at this stage. We’ve seen reports on social media to that effect. We will continue to look for signs as to whether or not that’s, in fact, the case,” Rice told NBC.

The coalition aims to destroy the Islamic State group, which controls a swath of territory in Iraq and Syria, has murdered two U.S. journalists and a British aid worker and is locked in a brutal war with Iraqi and Kurdish authorities.

AFP Photo/Wang Zhao

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Khorasan Group Was Planning ‘Major’ Attack: Pentagon

Khorasan Group Was Planning ‘Major’ Attack: Pentagon

Washington (AFP) — A U.S.-led military operation against jihadists in Syria struck Al-Qaeda’s Khorasan group because it was on the verge of executing “major attacks” against the West, a senior U.S. officer said Tuesday.

“Intelligence reports indicated that the group was in the final stages of plans to execute major attacks against western targets and potentially the U.S. homeland,” Lieutenant General William Mayville, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.

The strikes against the Khorasan group early Tuesday were separate from a wave of bombing raids led by the United States and backed by several Arab countries that targeted the Islamic State group.

Earlier the Pentagon had said that U.S. air strikes killed Khorasan members who were a group of Al-Qaeda veterans hatching plots against Western targets.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, had announced that U.S. warplanes carried out eight air strikes against Khorasan group targets west of Aleppo.

Mayville said more than 40 Tomahawk missiles were launched, and that “the majority of the Tomahawk strikes were against Khorasan.”

Speaking of the broader campaign that included Arab states, Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said “our initial indication is that these strikes were very successful.”

And he suggested that more U.S. action in Syria was forthcoming.

“I can tell you that last night’s strikes were only the beginning,” Kirby said.

The overnight operation was the first in which the U.S. military’s new F-22 Raptor strike fighter was used in combat.

AFP/Abdurashid Abdulle

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