Khorasan leader believed dead after airstrikes

US-led airstrikes are believed to have killed a leader of an al Qaeda splinter group. The Khorasan group was believed to have been plotting imminent attacks against the West, according to defense officials.

The leader of the al Qaeda splinter group Khorasan, which US officials say was plotting imminent attacks against the West, is believed to have been killed, the SITE (Search for International Terrorist Entities) monitoring service announced on Sunday.

A twitter account managed by an al Qaeda member said that the Kuwait-born Muhsin al-Fadhli, a high-level al Qaeda operative and former close associate of Osama bin Laden, had been killed incoalition airstrikes conducted on September 23 in Syia.

SITE said a series of tweets expressed condolences for the deaths of Fadhli and Abu Youssef al-Turki, another Khorasan leader. The monitoring group said the tweets also bemoaned conditions in Syria, where the US-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes against "Islamic State" militants.

US officials believed Fadhli had been killed in the September 23 strikes, but were still investigating whether the strikes had in fact killed him. The twitter messages and Sunday's SITE announcement appear to provide confirmation of Fadhli's death.

The Khorasan group - little known to the West until the US targeted it with airstrikes - was believed to have been plotting attacks against US and European targets, US defense officials said. SITE did not name the jihadist who reported al-Fadhli had been killed.

The Khorasan terror cell has long been under US surveillance and is described as a network of veteran al Qaeda fighters with combat experience in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Khorasan is also working closely with the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's Syian affiliate.

bw/sb (Reuters, AFP)  dw de