Pentagon: Terrorist group was planning ‘major attack’
US says al-Qaeda offshoot targeted in Syria was in 'final stages' of executing plan against Western targets
A US-led military operation against jihadists in Syria struck al-Qaeda’s Khorasan Group because it was on the verge of executing “major attacks” against the West, a senior US officer said Tuesday.
“Intelligence reports indicated that the group was in the final stages of plans to execute major attacks against Western targets and potentially the US homeland,” Lieutenant General William Mayville, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.
The strikes against the Khorasan Group early Tuesday were separate from a wave of bombing raids led by the United States and backed by several Arab countries that targeted the Islamic State.
Earlier the Pentagon had said that US airstrikes killed Khorasan members who were a group of al-Qaeda veterans hatching plots against Western targets.
US Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, had announced that US warplanes carried out eight airstrikes against Khorasan Group targets west of Aleppo.
Mayville said more than 40 Tomahawk missiles were launched, and that “the majority of the Tomahawk strikes were against Khorasan.”
Speaking of the broader campaign that included Arab states, Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said “our initial indication is that these strikes were very successful.”
And he suggested that more US action in Syria was forthcoming.
“I can tell you that last night’s strikes were only the beginning,” Kirby said.
The overnight operation was the first in which the US military’s new F-22 Raptor strike fighter was used in combat.