‘Terrorists in Syria close to attack US’

The United States is claiming that it carried out airstrikes on an Al-Qaeda cell in Syria known as the Khorasan Group after it obtained intelligence showing the group was going to attack the US or Europe.

The Khorasan Group was nearing “the execution phase of an attack either in Europe or the homeland,” Army Lt. Gen. William C. Mayville Jr., the Pentagon’s director for operations, told reporters on Tuesday.

Mayville said the Khorsan Group has been trying to hire some people in the US to work for them as operatives, noting the group is not targeting the government of Bashar-al-Assad or Syrian people but rather forming roots there to plan attacks against the US and other Western countries.

Another official said that the US is currently monitoring any active plot against either the United States or its allies adding it is “the united view of our intelligence community.”

A senior administration official also said the plan to hit the group “is something that has been on our radar for several months and it is an action that we were contemplating separate and apart from” the other airstrikes on the ISIL.

The Khorasan group is comprised of Al-Qaeda militants, who previously fought in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The United States and its allies have already started airstrikes against the ISIL terrorist group in Syria.

US President Barack Obama has authorized airstrikes against ISIL targets in Iraq and Syria, but has ruled out US boots on the ground in a combat role. The United States has already conducted some 174 airstrikes against ISIL targets in Iraq since mid-August.

AT/GJH