Special to WorldTribune.com

Bill Gertz, Inside the Ring, Washington Times

U.S. military and intelligence officials are trying to confirm intelligence and social media reports that the leader of the Al Qaida offshoot in Syria known as the Khorasan Group was killed in Monday’s airstrikes.

Widespread Twitter messages after the U.S.-led Tomahawk cruise missile attack on Khorasan positions in the northwestern Syrian town of Kafr Daryan indicate that Khorasan leader Muhsin al-Fadhli was killed. The tweets have been circulated with the hashtag “#Martyrdom_Of_Muhsin_Al-Fadhli.” Well-known jihadists also offered condolences for al-Fadhli, whom many described as the leader of Al Qaida-affiliate Nusra Front, not the Khorasan Group.

Many of the jihadists warned against using electronic communications and suggested the Al Qaida leader was targeted by electronic intelligence-gathering means. “We have warned time and again, and are still warning against, phones that are under surveillance, which many mujahedeen and leaders have,” one tweet stated. …

U.S. Central Command said eight strikes were carried out late Monday against the Khorasan Group west of Aleppo and included hits on training camps, an explosives and munitions production facility, a communications building and command and control facilities.

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  Khorasan leader may have been Tomahawked, LIFE, Muhsin al-Fadhli, WorldTribune.com