Al-Qaeda offshoot hit by airstrikes was close to attacking America: U.S

Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that President Barack Obama ordered American airstrikes against the Khorasan Group in Syria because the shadowy al-Qaeda ally was close to launching attacks on the United States or its allies. While most Americans had never heard of that band of Islamist extremists prior to the sustained overnight bombing campaign, “this is a group that has been known to us for two years,” Holder told Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric. The Khorasan Group consists of al-Qaeda veterans who fought in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and is focused on attacking the West, not the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Pentagon officials said.

The hitting that we did last night, I think, will probably continue until we are at a stage where we think we have degraded their ability to get at our allies or to the homeland.

Attorney General Eric Holder

U.S. officials had picked up intelligence that the plot to attack Western aircraft had reached advanced stages and “there were timetables on it,” one official told Yahoo News. Holder did not confirm that but linked the group directly to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson’s decision in early July to forbid uncharged cellphones, laptops and other electronic devices from some U.S-bound flights originating overseas. The U.S. had been contemplating striking the extremist cell “separate and apart from the growing threat” from the Islamic State, the official said.

Clearly the fact of the United States launching a military action in Syria provided an opportunity to take that action.

Anonymous U.S. official to Yahoo News

World Khorasan