The al Qaeda offshoot Khorasan could be an even bigger threat to the United States than the notorious ISIS.
Khorasan is composed of operatives and explosives experts from Osama bin Laden’s old al Qaeda network.
CBS News says that new security efforts at two dozen foriegn airports on U.S.-bound passengers are because of Khorasan, where bin Laden’s old comrades are now loyal to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri and are working on building new, undetectable bombs.
Sources told the outlet that the al Qaeda cell goes by the name Khorasan.
“Unlike ISIS, which is believed at present to be largely engulfed in its fight for territory. Khorasan is developing fresh plots to target U.S. aviation, and it’s trying to recruit Westerners who have flocked to the fight in Syria, some of whom have joined the al Qaeda franchise in the country, known as the al-Nusra Front,” CBS said.
The efforts at airports include the widely announced ban on laptops and phones that don’t have batteries.
Sources said that the group includes technicians trained by al Qaeda’s master bomb builder, Ibrahim al-Asiri.
The outlet further says that Matt Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, was referencing the undetectable bomb threat in testimony on Capitol Hill.
“In Syria, we’ve seen veteran al Qaeda fighters travel from Pakistan to take advantage of the permissive environment there,” said Olsen, before the Homeland Security Secretary said that discussions about “specific organizations… should be left to a classified setting.”
But former CIA deputy director Mike Morell said on CBS This Morning that the group of militants come from a main hub for al Qaeda, near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.
“Khorasan members came from Pakistan,” he said. “They focus on attacks in the West.”
