The Pentagon announced July 22 that Muhsin al-Fadhli [7], a longtime al-Qaeda operative from Kuwait, was killed on two weeks earlier "in a kinetic strike" while "traveling in a vehicle near Sarmada, Syria." Al-Fadhli was a leader of al-Qaeda's so-called "Khorasan Group [8]," a cadre of veteran militants now based in Syria. The Khorasan Group has been "plotting external attacks against the United States and its allies," Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said in a statement. The statement acknowledged that al-Fadhli survived air-strikes on Khorasan Group targets in September 2014. According to US officials, the Khorasan Group is made up of operatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Chechnya and North Africa who were ordered to Syria by al-Qaeda "emir" Ayman al-Zawahiri [9]. Among al-Fadhli's missions was reportedly the failed effort to reconcile the Qaeda affiliate Nusra Front with ISIS. (Long War Journal [10], July 22)
Nusra Front merged [11] with the so-called Islamic State in 2013, but the two factions shortly fell out [12] over a leadership dispute. Last year, Zawahiri conferred [13] the official Qaeda franchise in Syria on Nusra Front, and ordered ISIS to disband. ISIS and Nusra Front continue to be at war [14] today. Both are being taregted by US air-strikes.
