The recent defeats of two US-backed rebel groups in Syria—Harakat al-Hazm, the US's largest recipient of support, and the Syria Revolutionaries Front (SRF) —by al-Qaeda's (AQ) Syrian affiliate, al-Nusra Front, delivered a major blow to the US-led coalition's fight against extremists in the country. Resulting from these attacks was the surrender of weapons and checkpoints to the group. Perhaps worse than the losses themselves, however, was the ultimate victory of al-Nusra Front, who will gain not only land and weapons from the battle, but also further support among Syrians—something that the US and its allies have yet to obtain.

The decision by President Obama to carry out airstrikes against the Khorasan Group (also called the Khorasan Shura) and al-Qaeda’s (AQ) affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra (or al-Nusra Front), has shifted the conversation over threats to the U.S. from the Islamic State (IS) to AQ.

 

In the last two days, Washington, along with various media outlets, have been reporting on the "Khurasan Group," a shadowy terrorist cell in Syria in its later stages of an attack plot against an unspecified Western target(s). It seemed to come out of nowhere; America, in launching what has been specifically branded as a war on the Islamic State (IS), claims a victorious aerial attack against a group no one has ever heard of.

The truth, however, is that virtually everyone around the world has heard about this group, more likely by its other name: al-Qaeda (AQ).

While most American attention has been on the threat posed by the Islamic State (IS), previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), another danger has been building over the past few months. Since early July, al-Qaeda’s (AQ) affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra (JN) or al-Nusra Front, has been quietly on the move.

The Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF), an al-Qaeda-linked media organization, released a posthumous video, titled “The Story of the American Muhajir,” featuring Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha (AKA Abu Hurayra al-Amriki), the American jihadist who carried out a suicide bombing in Syria in May of this year. The video was released just three days after al-Nusra Front released their own 17-minute posthumous video of Hurayra on July 25 through their al-Manara al-Baydha’ Media Foundation.