Muhsin al-Fadhli

Muhsin Fadhil Ayed Ashour al-Fadhli (24 April 1981 – 8 July 2015) was an alleged senior leader of Khorasan, an offshoot of the al-Nusra Front, a branch of al-Qaeda.

Militant activity According to the U.S. Department of Treasury, al-Fadhli fought alongside the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan as the second-in-command to an unnamed al-Qaeda leader. In Chechnya, Al-Fadhli fought against Russian forces and received military training. According to media reports, al-Fadhli was a close confidant of Osama bin Laden, and one of a few people to be informed of the September 11 attacks, before they were launched. Al-Fadhli was also suspected of being connected to the October 2002 attack on U.S. Marines on the Kuwaiti island of Faylaka. In February 2003, al-Fadhli was convicted by a Kuwaiti court for financial support for terrorist activities and participating in military training in Afghanistan in order to carry out terrorist attacks. The Kuwaiti court issued a five-year jail sentence to al-Fadhi and the other three convicted terrorists.

In the U.S. Department of Treasury's 2005 designation of al-Fadhli, he is mentioned as “a major facilitator connected to the brutal terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi” who assisted fighters attacking U.S. and multinational forces in Iraq. The Iran-based al-Qaeda web worked to finance terrorist activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan and transport its fighters to al-Qaeda's affiliates in Syria through Turkey. According to the U.S. Treasury, al-Fadhli used his network of wealthy Kuwaiti terrorist donors to send money to jihadists fighting in Syria. Al-Fadhli also received “thousands of dollars” from Abd al-Malik Muhammad Yusuf Uthman Abd al Salam, a Qatari ID holder and designated al-Qaeda and Al-Nusra Front facilitator.

In mid-2013, al-Fadhli was sent to Syria on behalf of al-Qaeda emir, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in order to mediate disputes between al-Qaeda's then Iraqi branch, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) and the al-Nusra Front. Following the total collapse of relations in February 2014, al-Fadhli was instrumental in influencing al-Qaeda's leadership to completely disassociate itself from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Death Al-Fadhli was killed on 8 July 2015, when the United States Air Force carried out an airstrike, targeting a vehicle carrying several al-Qaeda members near the al-Nusra-controlled town of Sarmada in northwest Syria, according to the Pentagon.