Did US Cruise Missile Strikes on Syrian Town of Kafr Daryan Kill Khorasan leader Muhsin al-Fadhli?

Bill Gertz

September 25, 2014

Death of a terrorist?

U.S. military and intelligence officials are trying to confirm intelligence and social media reports that the leader of the al Qaeda offshoot in Syria known as theKhorasan Group was killed in Monday’s airstrikes.

Widespread Twitter messages after the U.S.-led Tomahawk cruise missile attack on Khorasan positions in the northwestern Syrian town of Kafr Daryan indicate that Khorasan leader Muhsin al-Fadhli was killed. The tweets have been circulated with the hashtag “#Martyrdom_Of_Muhsin_Al-Fadhli.”

Well-known jihadists also offered condolences for al-Fadhli, whom many described as the leader of al Qaeda-affiliate Nusra Front, not the Khorasan Group.

Many of the jihadists warned against using electronic communications and suggested the al Qaeda leader was targeted by electronic intelligence-gathering means. “We have warned time and again, and are still warning against, phones that are under surveillance, which many mujahedeen and leaders have,” one tweet stated.

“We just don’t have a confirmation to make at this point,” Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said of al-Fadhli’s reported death. “We don’t have personnel on the ground to verify, so we’re continuing to assess.”

U.S. Central Command said eight strikes were carried out late Monday against theKhorasan Group west of Aleppo and included hits on training camps, an explosives and munitions production facility, a communications building and command and control facilities.

A senior Obama administration official who briefed reporters Tuesday on the airstrikes said al-Fadhli’s death has not been confirmed.

A second official said: “We’ve got every reason to believe that the work of the Department of Defense and our allies was quite effective last night.”