Al-Qaida branch rules out attack

Al-Qaida’s branch in Syria has no plans to attack the West but warns that they might retaliate if airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition continue to target them, the leader of the group said in an interview with an Arab TV station. The Syrian known as Abu Muhammed al-Golani, who heads the Nusra Front, said the aim of his group is to march to the Syrian capital Damascus and bring down President Bashar Assad’s government. Al-Golani denied that the so-called Khorasan group even exists. Since September when the U.S. led coalition began targeting the Islamic State group in Syria, U.S. airstrikes have attacked targets associated with the so-called Khorasan group — which Washington says is a special cell within the Nusra Front that is plotting attacks against Western interests.