Air strike Kills Al-Qaeda Leader in Syria
KABUL: (Middle East Press) The leader of Al-Qaeda Group has been killed following a US led coalition air strike earlier this month in northern Syria, the Pentagon said late Tuesday.
Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman said that “Muhsin al-Fadhli” was killed in a “kinetic strike” on July 8 while traveling in a vehicle near the northwestern Syrian town of Sarmada.
He did not confirm whether a drone or a manned aircraft had killed Fadhli.
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.
The US State Department had posted a US$7 million reward for information leading to Fadhli’s death or detention. He was wanted by law enforcement authorities in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United States for terrorist activities.
The UN Security Council’s Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee cited him in 2005 for his role in planning, facilitating and financing Al-Qaeda attacks, which triggered a freeze on his assets and a travel ban.
