The leader of a group of senior al Qaeda terrorists who took refuge in Syria is believed to have died in U.S. airstrikes conducted Tuesday.
Mohsin al-Fadhli, the leader of Khorasan terrorist group, is said to have perished in a series of airstrikes over Syria that involved U.S. F-22 Raptors and various means of support from countries like Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
“We believe he is dead,” an official told Reuters Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The U.S. government said Tuesday that al Qaeda leaders who comprised the Khorasan terrorist group were in the final stages of planning an attack on the U.S. or its allies in Europe.
“Once again, it must be clear to anyone who would plot against America and do Americans harm that we will not tolerate safe havens for terrorists who threaten our people,” President Obama said Tuesday.
Pressed for a confirmation on whether al-Fadhli has been killed, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren told reporters Wednesday that the Defense Department is not yet “making confirmations either way.”
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“What we’ll say is that we believe our strikes in Syria were effective,” Col. Warren said. “We believe that we were targeting facilities that will degrade both ISIL operations in Syria as well as Khorasan.
“We just don’t have a confirmation to make at this point. It takes some time. These strikes were — obviously we don’t have personnel there on the ground to verify so we’re continuing to assess.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
• Maggie Ybarra can be reached at mybarra@washingtontimes.com.
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