Is 'Khorasan' really exist or mere American fantasy?

Translation by Yusra Ahmed

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Out of the blue, in the middle of the inflamed Syrian scene, a group called Khorasan came to surface.

After the US-led air strikes on Syria, reports followed with confirmation by the American Congress, revealed that air strikes targeted Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham “ISIS” and Nusra front, resulted in getting rid of Khorasan group, led by Kuwaiti Mohsen al-Fadili.

Before that, no one in Syria heard of that group, even who were interested in the Jihadist movements and groups, moreover, it was not on the frequently updated American list for terrorist groups.

Many Western and Arabic intelligence reports mentioned that a “terrorist group” based in Syria was getting ready to attack USA using explosive made of non-metal materials, which make discovering it difficult via recent security methods used in airports. Since then, USA increased security methods in airports and airplanes coming from the Arab and European countries expecting recruiting European nationals to perform the operation.

The mentioned reports and expectations coincide with surprising statements of Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al- Saud, the Saudi King, during his speech at ceremonies of receiving credentials of many Ambassadors on 30th August, 2014. He said that terrorism would hit Europe within a month and USA within two months from the time of the speech.

Analyzing events points out that Saudi Intelligence who did discover Khorasan group, and King Abdullah’s statements based on their reports, made Syria the priority for Obama, the US president, and hastened the date of strikes despite the weak alliance which practically consists of only three countries “Saudi Arabia, USA and France”

Furthermore, al-Fadhili’s background points to the Saudi intelligence’s role in finding out his plans against USA. He was born in 1981, from Shiite family, but became Sunni and joined al-Qaeda. He was imprisoned in Saudi Arabia earlier last decade under accusation of being a member of “Arabic Afghans” then was release. Again he became wanted by Saudi and Kuwaiti intelligence because of his plans to target America including the American Military Bases in Kuwait.

American intelligence concentrates on al-Fadhili’s plans and activities. NY Times newspaper said on 24th September 2014 that al-Fadhili reached Syria in 2013 from Pakistan, to start founding a cell in Syria to perform attacks on Europe and USA.

American Intelligence gives this group special interest, because they do not like appearing on media, or publishing their activities and operations on Internet, and they don’t have any account on social media. Information revealed that no activities of Khorasan Group against Syrian Regime or Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham “ISIS”, as its main interest is to improve its members’ fighting and intelligence skills and experience and to develop new tools able to breach the security procedures in USA and Europe.

On the other hand, Nusra Front and al-Qaeda do not believe and deny any existence of Khorasan group in Syria and consider the idea nothing more than illusion or Western-Arabic excuses justifying attacking Nusra front.

Balancing both contradicting stories, it seems that Khorasan most likely to exist in Syria, but not necessarily to have that name, as it is not important.

In regard to Nusra Front’s start, it did not swear allegiance to any local or regional Jihadist groups, even to the Central Leadership on al-Qaeda, despite ISIS's help in supporting Nusra Front financially, logistically and militarily.

Nusra’ leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani had pledged allegiance to Ayman Zawahiri, al-Qaeda leader, came as a must to avoid the Inevitability of doing the same with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and to avoid merging of Nusra Front with Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). The central leadership of al-Qaeda realizes that Nusra Front was forced to swear allegiance to them, as Nusra main interests are national, not like al-Qaeda, international.

Moreover, al-Qaeda needs bases or cells to support its activities and operations, after the weakness it suffered from after killing its leader Osama bin Laden and frequent attacks and air strikes on its bases in Afghanistan. Therefore, it has become unsafe shelter for al-Qaeda, and Iraq was not a convenient place to found bases because of ISIS’s control, the same in Maghreb countries because of strong security and intelligence systems. Therefore, it is most likely that al-Zawahiri preferred Syria to become a new base in the middle of arms chaos and the multi- angled conflict “Free Syrian Army, Syrian regime, Hezbollah militia, Iranian forces, Iraqi Militia, Islamist groups and Jihadist groups”.

It is expected that discovering al-Qaeda-linked groups in Syria was not pure American Intelligence efforts, but most likely, other intelligence in Arabic countries which have good relations with the opposition helped in discovering “Khorasan”.