Sanafi al-Nasr, a Saudi citizen whose real name is Abdul Mohsen Adballah Ibrahim al Charekh, a leading figure of the Khorasan Group who moved to Syria, was eliminated during a raid by the US-led Coalition last Thursday. Confirmation comes directly from the Pentagon.
Nasr, former al-Qaeda finance officer, is the fifth senior leader of the Khorasan group killed in the last four months. The martyrdom of Nasr has been widely taken up by jihadist social media.
The Khorasan group, publicly known since September last year, is composed of veterans from the Al Nusra Front, a Syrian affiliate of Al-Qaida fighting against the government of President Bashar Assad. The Khorasan group has a fundamental characteristic: it is dedicated exclusively to the West, planning attacks and exploiting the know-how acquired in the construction of non-metallic bombs to be placed on airliners, with the recruitment of terrorists with western passports.
The Khorasan group, unlike ISIS, is made up of a few individuals, but they are all high-profile figures. It would be correct to say that every element of the Khorasan group is highly trained and prepared: they are chosen terrorists.
Sanafi al-Nasr
A key element in al-Qaeda's finance management, it also served as a recruiter in Turkey, Pakistan and Syria. A longtime Jihadist, he was the main financier of various factions linked to al-Qaeda, managing the assets of the donors of the terrorist organization from the Gulf. A very influential strategist, he has held various operational roles in Afghanistan and Pakistan and Iran. Treasurer of al-Qaeda in the 2012, he moved to Syria in the 2013 where he became one of the most important figures of the al Nusra group. Ex-leader Muhsin al Fadhli's right arm has helped to maintain contact with all the major al-Qaeda figures.
