Al-Qaeda leader who radicalised ‘Jihadi John’ dies in US air strike
THE head of a radical al-Qaeda offshoot who was said to have converted and radicalised the British extremist known as “Jihadi John” has been killed in a US air strike, the Pentagon said last night.
Muhsin al-Fadhli, leader of the Khorasan Group and a long-time US target with a $7 million bounty on his head, died on July 8 when a vehicle he was travelling in near Sarmada in northwest Syria was struck by US missiles.
As a close former confidant of Osama bin Laden, al-Fadhli was “among the few trusted al-Qaeda leaders that received advanced notification” of the 9/11 attacks, the Pentagon said.
The Khorasan Group was formed by al-Qaeda operatives who were sent from Pakistan to Syria specifically to plot attacks on the West. Officials say the Khorasan Group is part of the alNusra front, Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate.
It emerged earlier this year that alFadhli had been instrumental in turning Mohammed Emwazi – or “Jihadi John” – into the executioner shown beheading hostages in videos released by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). Reports said Emwazi met al-Fadhli, a native of Kuwait, in 2007 and that he had a profound influence on him, convincing him to renounce his Shia faith and convert to the branch of Sunni Islam followed by Isil.
The Pentagon spokesman said that al-Fadhli had been killed in a coalition air strike, but did not specify whether it was carried out by a drone or a manned aircraft. Navy Captain Jeff Davis said al-Fadhli had played a role in two other terrorist attacks, including the bombing of the French oil tanker MV Limburg in 2002. That attack killed one crew member and injured 12 others, and caused 90,000 barrels of oil to spill into the Gulf of Aden.
The other attack mentioned in the Pentagon statement took place on Faylaka Island off of Kuwait. It left one US marine dead and another injured.
“His death will degrade and disrupt ongoing external operations of al-Qaeda against the United States and our allies and partners,” the spokesman said.
Officials have said Khorasan militants were sent to Syria by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to recruit Europeans and Americans whose passports could allow them to board a USbound airliner with less scrutiny from security officials.
According to classified US intelligence assessments, Khorasan militants have been working with bomb-makers from al-Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate to test new ways to slip explosives past airport security, leading to a ban on uncharged mobile phones and laptops on flights to the US from Europe and the Middle East.
The Khorasan group remains a threat, American officials said, and the US military has periodically targeted the group as part of its air campaign in Syria, starting beginning with eight strikes against Khorasan targets last September.
Among those who have so far survived the bombs is a French-born jihadist, David Drugeon, who fought in Afghanistan and has advanced military skills that are a source of great concern to US intelligence.