"We can confirm that US aircraft struck a target in Syria earlier today associated with a network of veteran Al-Qaeda operatives, sometimes called the 'Khorasan group,' who are plotting external attacks against the United States and our allies," spokesman Colonel Patrick Ryder told AFP yesterday.
He declined to provide further details of the air raid, the latest in a series against the group that US officials say is a collection of militants from Al-Qaeda and the Al-Nusra Front, which is Qaeda's Syrian branch.
The group has been hit by US warplanes in two previous strikes -- once in September at the start of air raids in Syria against the Islamic State group, and last week, when a French bomb-maker was targeted by American aircraft.
The Khorasan group had been an obscure cell until US intelligence officials flagged it in September, days before dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from naval ships against the militants near Aleppo.
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Most rebel groups in Syria have been willing to cooperate with Al-Nusra despite its allegiance to Al-Qaeda.
Unlike the Islamic State group, Al-Nusra has maintained a focus on overthrowing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has mostly Syrian -- not foreign -- fighters, experts say.
Apart from the air strikes on the Al-Qaeda offshoot, the US-led air campaign has focused on the IS jihadists, with more than 800 coalition bombing raids since August 8 over Iraq and Syria.