Leader of Qaeda Cell in Syria killed in Airstrike
According to US military reports&nbsp;Muhsin al-Fadhli, the leader of an Al Qaeda cell called Khorasan was killed on July 8th. Khorasan is a Syrian-based based cell which the US view as possibly being &nbsp;"the most intent on, and capable of, striking the United States or its Western allies with an organized terrorist attack".
A military drone strike this month killed the leader of a shadowy Qaeda cell in Syria that American officials say has been plotting attacks against the United States and Europe, Pentagon officials said on Tuesday.

The leader, Muhsin al-Fadhli, was killed on July 8 while traveling in a vehicle near Sarmada, in northwestern Syria, a Defense Department spokesman, Capt. Jeff Davis, said in a statement. Mr. Fadhli was a senior Qaeda operative who, according to the State Department, was so close to Osama bin Laden that he was among a small group of people who knew about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks before they were launched.

Even as the United States has shifted its main counterterrorism focus in the past year to the Islamic State from Al Qaeda, intelligence officials say the group that Mr. Fadhli led, known as Khorasan, has emerged as the cell in Syria that may be the most intent on, and capable of, striking the United States or its Western allies with an organized terrorist attack.

There is little public information about the Khorasan Group, which American officials say is made up of about two dozen seasoned Qaeda operatives from the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa who were sent to Syria by Ayman al-Zawahri, Al Qaeda’s leader in Pakistan. Embedded within the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, the Khorasan operatives were to recruit Europeans and Americans whose passports allow them to travel on American-bound jetliners with less scrutiny from security officials.