What is Khorasan
It appears that U.S. officials are taking a new terror group more seriously as a U.S.-led set of airstrikes hit ISIS and Khorasan Group targets in Syria this morning.
Khorasan is a jihadist group born of Al Queda leadership that has a similar, yet competing goal, as ISIS. The Khorasan Group desires the recreation of the ancient Persian province that once held the same name while ISIS is attempting to create a global Islamic state or Caliphate starting with the overthrow of Syria’s Asad and the government in Iraq.
Khorasan is headed by Muhsin al-Fadhli, who was the leader of Al Queda in Iran while it’s former head was detained by Iranian authorities.
Al-Fadhli moved to Syria after a re-shuffling of Al-Queda leadership where he has pulled together a group of Al-Queda members from across the globe – including Europe and the United States.
He was later joined by a group of Al Queda members including logistics expert Abd Al-Rahman Muhammad al Juhni. Al Juhni was a senior member of Al Queda in Pakistan and specialized in running the courier network and moving money around.
Fadhli seems disinterested in the outcome of the Syrian conflict and may only be based there to hide under the confusion of the Syrian civil war while he completes the planning phase for Khorasan – a phase intelligence experts say is very near completion.
The Khorasan plans are reported to be focused on attacks on U.S. and European soil. These attacks would most-likely be carried out by home grown terrorists recruited by Khorasan’s significant and effective social media efforts.
U.S. officials pointed at an imminent threat of terrorist attacks on the United States as partial justification for the airstrikes on Syria that began this morning. Whether Al Fadhli and his Khorasan Group associates have been nuetralized by today’s strikes is currently unknown.