Al Qaeda Leader Muhsin Al-Fadhli Killed Earlier this Month

The Pentagon confirmed on July 21 that a military drone strike killed Al Qaeda official Muhsin al-Fadhli, age 34, on July 8. Al-Fadhli, a long-time facilitator and financier of Al Qaeda operations, was killed while traveling near Sarmada, in northwestern Syria.

Decapitation of leadership only exists as a short-term strategy, but al-Fadhli’s death should be considered to be a “significant” loss to Al Qaeda. At the time of his death, Al-Fadhli was wanted by officials in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the US and had a $7 million reward on his head. He was involved in an October 2002 attack on the French ship MV LIMBURG that killed one crew member, injured four, and spilled 50,000 barrels of crude oil along the coast of Yemen. He fought with the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and he was one highest ranking leaders of Al Qaeda residing in Iran. He was one of the few Al Qaeda officials given advance notice of the 9/11 attacks on the US, and intelligence officials had been tracking him for at least 10 years.

Al-Fadhli was considered to be one of the leaders of the “Khorasan Group,” a phrase used by the US government to refer to a network of senior Al Qaeda members based in Syria. US officials have referred to the group as “as much of a danger” to the US as the Islamic State. It is focused solely on attacking the West and Western targets and was the target of a series of airstrikes last September. At the time of those strikes, it was believed to be creating non-metallic bombs that could elude airport security to be brought onto airplanes.

The leader of Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra (Nusra), publicly denied the existence of the group in an interview with Al Jazeera in May. However, US intelligence officials insist that it poses a serious threat to the West. They say it reports to Al Qaeda’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and consists of approximately two dozen Al Qaeda leaders who traveled to Syria from Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2012.

The reality of the situation is that the Khorasan Group is a part of Nusra, and is entrenched within the larger Al Qaeda operations within Syria. US airstrikes on Khorasan therefore also target Nusra, and unfortunately, Nusra enjoys a large amount of popular support within Syria, and is a member of the Jaysh al-Fath coalition of Islamist and tribal militant groups fighting the Assad regime.

Decapitation of core Al Qaeda leadership is a good thing, and had al-Fadhli survived, he certainly would have continued to plan attacks against the West. However, Fadhli’s death is a reminder of the central role being played by Al Qaeda among much of the Syrian rebel forces. Multiple governments in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar, have worked closely with Nusra to fight against the Islamic State and the Assad regime. Additionally, the US is trying to recruit Syrians to fight against the Islamic State, but it is having a difficult time finding volunteers who are not linked to jihadist groups. Despite the urgent necessity of standing up to the Islamic State, the US must make sure to not find itself inadvertently allied with Nusra or its Islamist coalition.