A veteran jihadist who led a network of high-ranking al-Qaeda terrorists known as the Khorasan Group has been killed in a U.S. airstrike in northwest Syria, the Pentagon said Sunday.
Saudi citizen Abdul Mohsen Adballah Ibrahim al-Charekh, who was also known as Sanafi al-Nasr, was killed in the attack on Thursday, according to a statement from Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook.
The Khorasan Group is comprised of dozens of high-ranking militants, mainly from Afghanistan and Pakistan, sent to Syria by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to "plan external attacks, construct and test improvised explosive devices, and recruit westerners to conduct operations," Rear Admiral John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said of the group in 2014.
Cook described al-Nasr as a "long-time jihadist" and said he had experience in moving money to fund the terror network.
"[Al-Nasr] moved funds from donors in the Gulf region into Iraq and then to al-Qaeda leaders from Pakistan to Syria," Cook said. "He organized and maintained routes for new recruits to travel from Pakistan to Syria through Turkey in addition to helping al-Qaeda's external operations in the West."
The veteran terrorist was said to have taken control of al-Qaeda's core finances in 2012, before relocating to Syria in 2013.
According to the Pentagon, al-Nasr is the fifth senior leader of the Khorasan Group to be killed in the past four months.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the killing of al-Nasr is evidence that the U.S. "will not relent in its mission to degrade, disrupt and destroy al-Qaeda and its remnants."
"This operation deals a significant blow to the Khorasan Group's plans to attack the United States and our allies," Carter said, "and once again proves that those who seek to do us harm are not beyond our reach."