A Pentagon spokesperson has confirmed that a U.S. air strike in Syria earlier this month killed a top leader of al-Qaeda splinter group Khorasan who had rare advanced knowledge of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
On July 8, Muhsin al-Fadhli was traveling near Sarmada, a town in northwestern Syria close to the Turkish border, when a U.S. drone targeted and struck his vehicle. The BBC reports that he had previously evaded a similar attempt on his life last September.
Though the bloody rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) has prompted American counterterrorism efforts to pivot away from al-Qaeda, al-Fadhli, a former confidant of Osama bin Laden, had remained a major target. A 2012 U.S. State Department report recognized him as “al-Qaida’s senior facilitator and financier in Iran” and a ringleader in the 2002 terrorist attack on a French oil tanker off the Yemeni coast.
At the time of his death, security officials had identified him as the leader of Khorasan, a Syria-based cabal of senior al-Qaeda members believed to possibly “pose as much of a danger as the [ISIS],” as National Intelligence Director James Clapper said last September. As ISIS conducted its public campaign of gruesome theatrics, al-Qaeda kept something of a low profile, purposely disassociating itself from what President Barack Obama had dubbed “junior varsity” jihadism. Despite ISIS’s rising profile, it is the elusive al-Qaeda leadership that possesses the organization and experience to execute a terrorist attack on Western soil, the New York Times reports.
Al-Fadhli was a seasoned jihadist. He was just 20 years old in 2001, but was already sufficiently elevated in al-Qaeda’s ranks to learn in advance of the planned assault on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
Accordingly, his death comes as a symbolic if not insurmountable blow to the group’s leadership.
“[Al-Fadhli] is certainly one of the most capable of the al-Qaeda core members,” Congressman Adam Schiff, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, told the Times last year, following a botched attempt on the extremist’s life. “His loss would be significant, but as we’ve seen before, any decapitation is only a short-term gain. The hydra will grow another head.”
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$25 million: Osama bin-Laden was the founder of al-Qaeda, the militant Islamist organization that was responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. Bin-Laden was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011 by an American Special Forces unit in an operation ordered by President Obama. Getty Images$25 million: Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman al-Zawahiri has led al-Qaeda since bin-Laden’s death in 2011 and is currently the most-wanted terrorist on the FBI’s list. Prior to assuming leadership of the organization, al-Zawahiri was the second-in-command, considered both the ideological and operational leader of the group.AFP/Getty Images$25 million: Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi (removed)
Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi was the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and was responsible for numerous hostage executions and suicide bombings, including the first major attack in 2003 that destroyed the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad. Al-Zarqawi was killed in an American airstrike near Baghdad in 2006. Getty Images$25 million: Saddam Hussein (removed)
Saddam Hussein was the president of Iraq from 1979-2003. The U.S. and the U.K. invaded Iraq in 2003 and deposed him on suspicions of ties to al-Qaeda. He was tried and convicted in 2006 of charges related to the 1982 killings of 148 Iraqi Shi’ites. He was sentenced to death, and hung in Dec. 2006. Chris Hondros—Getty Images$15 million: Uday Hussein (removed)
Uday Hussein was the eldest son of Saddam Hussein, but was too violent and erratic even for his father. Because of his brutal, psychopathic behavior, Uday was denied much real state power. Uday was killed by a U.S. Task Force in Mosul in 2003.Karim Sahib—AFP/Getty Images$15 million: Qusay Hussein (removed)
Qusay Hussein was Saddam Hussein’s second son, and believed to be the chosen successor for his father. Qusay lead Iraq’s intelligence and security services and was also involved in the weapons program. Qusay was killed in the same 2003 raid that killed his brother Uday. AFP/Getty Images$10 million: Abu Du'a a.k.a. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Abu Du’a is the leader of the militant Islamist group ISIS. ISIS is considered too extreme even by al-Qaeda, which disavowed the group in 2014. Recently, ISIS has seized Mosul and other major Iraqi cities, threatening the country’s security and sparking global panic. Reuters$10 million: Hafiz Saeed
Hafiz Saeed is the amir of Jama’at-ud-Da’wah, a terrorist organization operating out of Pakistan, and founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the organization responsible for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai that lasted four days and resulted in 174 casualties. Saeed resides in Lahore, Pakistan. Anjum Naveed—AP$10 million: Mullah Omar
Mullah Mohammed Omar is the spiritual leader of the Taliban. He led Afghanistan as the Head of the Supreme Council of Afghanistan from 1996-2001, and is wanted by the U.S. for sheltering Osama bin-Laden and other al-Qaeda militants leading up to the attacks on September 11, 2001. AP$10 million: Yasin al-Suri
Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil, commonly known as Yasin al-Suri, is a senior al-Qaeda facilitator who moves al-Qaeda recruits from the Gulf into Pakistan and Afghanistan. He is also a key fundraiser for the organization. Al-Suri bases his operations out of Iran. U.S. Department of State
