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Khorasan Group Founders Obsessed With Pulling Off Next 9/11
Wednesday, September 24, 2014 07:07 AM
By: Melanie Batley
American airstrikes in Syria have begun to focus on a small, little-known al-Qaida offshoot that is fixated on carrying out an assault on the United States similar to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The group, known as Khorasan, is composed of roughly 50 fighters who were trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan and sent to Syria to recruit foreign fighters. Then jihadists are loyal to al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, and operate separately from the Islamic State (ISIS), Fox News reported.
"Their focus is recruiting those that hold Western passports so they can attack Western airliners," Ryan Mauro, national security analyst and adjunct professor of homeland security at the Clarion Project, told Fox News. "Since a-Qaida is looking like a bunch of has-beens, an attack on Western airliners would be a way of restoring their credibility.
"It's the jihadist equivalent of an old rock band launching a comeback tour," he added.
The group has set up training camps in Syria, and followers are given sophisticated skills in bomb making.
The Obama administration on Tuesday directed airstrikes against the group around the regions of Idlib and Aleppo, and officials said the bombings damaged the group, though may not have eradicated it.
The group has become a rival of ISIS, competing for dominance in international terrorism, according to Fox News, but ISIS claims their divisions are based on spiritual differences.
"Al-Qaida, including Jabhat al-Nusra and Khorasan, deviated from the rightful course," ISIS spokesman Mohammed al-Adnani recently declared, according to Fox News. "It is not a dispute about who to kill or who to give your allegiance. It is a question of religious practices being distorted and an approach veering off the right path."
Khorasan, whose leader is Muhsin al-Fadhli, is particularly concerned with attacking Western planes and trains. There have been unconfirmed reports that al-Fadhli was killed in the bombing raid and sources say his death could be a major blow to the organization.
Al-Fadhli is believed to have been one of the few that were privy to the September 11 plot before it was carried out, and he had extensive training in firearms, anti-aircraft guns, and explosives.
"The group's repeated efforts to conceal explosive devices to destroy aircraft demonstrate its continued pursuits of high-profile attacks against the West," Nicholas Rasmussen, deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said, according to Fox News. He added that Khorasan's "increasing awareness of Western security procedures and its efforts to adapt to those procedures" make it particularly dangerous.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned last week that the group poses a real threat of attacks on U.S. soil.
"In terms of threat to the homeland, Khorasan may pose as much of a danger as the Islamic State," Clapper said, according to Fox News.
