Al-Qaeda leader killed in Syria air strike: US
AFP
AFP, WASHINGTON: A US-led coalition air strike earlier this month killed the leader of an Al-Qaeda offshoot in Syria that American officials accuse of plotting attacks against the US and its allies, the Pentagon said.
Muhsin al-Fadhli was killed in a kinetic strike on July 8 while traveling in a vehicle near the northwestern Syrian town of Sarmada, said Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.
He did not confirm whether a drone or a manned aircraft had killed Fadhli, 34. Fadhli was allegedly the leader of the Khorasan Group, a group of senior Al-Qaeda members who have traveled from Central Asia and elsewhere in the Middle East to Syria to plot attacks on the West.
The Kuwaiti-born militant was so trusted by the inner circle of late Al-Qaeda supreme leader Osama bin Laden that he was among the few who knew in advance about the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, according to US intelligence.
His death will degrade and disrupt ongoing external operations of Al-Qaeda against the United States and its allies and partners, said Davis, who heads the Defense Depart-ments press operations.
