Al Qaeda offshoot targeted in northern Syria city

LA Times:

Even as it launched sweeping new airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria, the U.S. military said Tuesday that it had expanded the campaign to the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, targeting an offshoot of Al Qaeda said to be plotting "imminent" attacks against American and Western targets.

A total of eight U.S. air attacks carried out in Syria’s largest city were aimed at the "Khorasan Group," described in a U.S. Central Command statement as an organization of Al Qaeda veterans.

The Aleppo campaign marked an expansion of the bombing effort launched initially against strongholds of Islamic State in eastern Syria, conducted by U.S. planes, drones and ships with the help of five Arab nations.

The strikes indicate that the U.S. air campaign in Syria has broader objectives than going after the Islamic State, the target of the attacks in eastern Syria.

The bombing west of Aleppo, about 100 miles northeast of the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqah, was intended “to disrupt the imminent attack plotting against the United States and Western interests conducted by a network of seasoned Al Qaeda veterans - sometimes referred to as the Khorasan Group - who have established a safe haven in Syria,” the command said in a statement.

A senior military officer, briefed on the Aleppo attacks, said intelligence reports suggested the group “was nearing the execution phase of an attack in Europe or the U.S.”

He said he did know more details about the attack the group was said to be preparing.

In another development, Israeli military officials said they had shot down a Syrian aircraft that was said to be attempting to infiltrate Israeli airspace in the Golan Heights.
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I have been seeing reports about the threat posed by the Khorasan Group which appears to be competing with ISIL for atrocities against the West.  Syria has become infested with terrorist factions seeking to take advantage of the chaos in that country's civil war.   The strikes in Syrian were primarily aimed at weapons depots and command and control centers of ISIL, but I suspect similar targets were hit for the Khorasan Group.