In brief: U.S. drone strike kills head of al-Qaida-led Khorasan Group
WASHINGTON – A U.S. military drone strike in northwest Syria has killed Muhsin al-Fadhli, the head of a shadowy cell of veteran al-Qaida operatives known as the Khorasan Group that sought to attack Western targets, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.
The 34-year-old Kuwaiti’s vehicle was hit July 8 as it traveled near the Turkish border in the Syrian town of Sarmada.
Al-Fadhli reportedly had long-term relationships with top-ranking al-Qaida leaders, including Ayman al-Zawahri, the Egyptian who took over the terrorist network after Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011.
“He was a senior al-Qaida facilitator who was among the few trusted al-Qaida leaders that received advanced notification of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks,” Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said in a statement.
Three journalists missing in Syria
MADRID – Three Spanish freelance journalists who traveled to Syria to report amid the country’s long-running civil war have gone missing around the embattled northern city of Aleppo, a Spanish journalism association said Tuesday, the latest ensnared in the world’s most dangerous assignment for reporters.
The disappearance of Antonio Pampliega, Jose Manuel Lopez and Angel Sastre, presumed to be working together, comes as most media organizations have pulled out of Syria, especially with the rise of the extremist Islamic State group. At least 84 journalists have been killed since 2011 in Syria, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, while others remain missing or have been released for ransom.
Car bomb in Iraq kills 14, wounds 30
BAGHDAD – An Iraqi police official in Baghdad says a car bomb detonated in front of a busy clothing store, killing 14 people and wounding 30.
The explosion happened in the predominantly Shiite district of New Baghdad late Tuesday. A hospital official corroborated the casualties. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief the media.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, however, the Islamic State group has been targeting Shiites across the country as it seeks to destabilize the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.