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Khorasan is al-Qaeda, and al-Qaeda is Khorasan. To date, nothing has been established to suggest a distinguishing difference in ideology between the two separately named entities. Instead, experts suggest that Khorasan should be viewed as an elite unit, largely consisting of members from al-Qaeda's "core" group, who are predominantly focused on plotting attacks against the West.

What's in a name? When you're an Islamist extremist group believed to pose an existential threat to the Western world, everything. In the past few months, we've seen the strange and somewhat revealing saga of what to call the group alternatively referred to as ISIS, ISIL, the Islamic State and Daesh. ........................................................ While there have been reports of groups in Pakistan taking on the Khorasan label, analysts cast doubt that the term is being widely used within Syria to refer to any distinct group. “There have been no jihadis in Syria or [Jabhat al-Nusra] to use that name when referring...

FULL TITLE - "Surprise! The “Khorasan Group” Is Really Core Al-Qaeda – But Obama Can’t Say That, Because He “Defeated” Al-Qaeda" In the 2012 campaign, Barack Obama repeatedly claimed, “Al-Qaeda is on the path to defeat.” But it was a lie. Al-Qaeda was not on the path to defeat. In fact, several top Bin Laden lieutenants had relocated to the Middle East and Syria in the last few years.In April 2014, Al-Qaeda fighters in Syria split off into two groups.Al-Akhbar.com reported: The global jihad movement has split in two. Members of al-Qaeda will now have to choose between two different...

And that’s not a good sign, in case readers wonder. The initial air strikes in Syria ordered by Barack Obama included a number of targets near Aleppo that focused on the Khorasan group, chartered by so-called core al-Qaeda to refocus attacks on Western aviation in particular. US intelligence sources tell Eli Lake at the Daily Beast that the bombmakers of Khorasan had worked to develop non-metallic bombs, including clothing seeped in explosive compounds, that could pass through airport detection systems. In the weeks [see update] before the airstrikes, however, the terrorist group “went dark,” just as intelligence officials thought...

The U.S. military said today that by striking a little known terror cell called the Khorasan Group in Syria it was able to take out dangerous men who were “plotting and planning imminent attacks against Western targets to include the U.S. homeland.” In the midst of the well-publicized campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the military’s first official announcement that a different, potentially more deadly terror group existed, that it’s members were planning an “imminent” attack on America and that those planning the attack had been killed in the U.S.-led bombing campaign all came as something...

A brief but important follow-up to Ed’s item this morning. You probably don’t recognize the name in the headline; until recently, I didn’t either. In fact, the name of the Khorasan Group itself wasn’t leaked to the media until last week, although James Clapper had alluded months ago to unnamed AQ operatives inside Syria wanting to hit the U.S. from afar.Turns out al-Fadhli has been on U.S. intel’s radar for a loooong time, though. And now he’s dead — maybe. Among the Al Nusrah Front positions targeted in the bombings are locations where members of the so-called “Khorasan group”...

(CNN) -- [Breaking news update 6:44 a.m. ET] The Khorasan Group, which the U.S. military struck overnight in Syria, was actively plotting against a U.S. homeland target and Western targets, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday. The threat was "imminent," the source said. The U.S. military also struck ISIS targets in Syria. The United States "had very good information" about the threat from the Khorasan Group, the source said. The U.S. strikes against the group were planned in advance, not at the last minute, the official said. Khorasan operatives were coming closer to the "end of their planning," the official...

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) may be dominating the headlines and stealing attention with its prolific propaganda, but CBS News' Bob Orr reports, another group in Syria -- one few have even heard of because information about it has been kept secret -- is considered a more urgent concern. Sources tell CBS News that operatives and explosives experts from Osama bin Laden's old al Qaeda network may again present an immediate threat to the U.S. homeland. At two dozen foreign airports, U.S.-bound passengers are undergoing enhanced security screening. Agents are searching for hidden explosives. Laptops and phones...

While the Islamic State group is getting the most attention now, another band of extremists in Syria — a mix of hardened jihadis from Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and Europe — poses a more direct and imminent threat to the United States, working with Yemeni bomb-makers to target U.S. aviation, American officials say. At the center is a cell known as the Khorasan group, a cadre of veteran al-Qaida fighters from Afghanistan and Pakistan who traveled to Syria to link up with the al-Qaida affiliate there, the Nusra Front.

Maulana Asim Umar, from a video by As Sahab. His face is intentionally blotted. Image from the SITE Intelligence Group. As Sahab, al Qaeda's propaganda arm, has released a video featuring Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander Maulana Asim Umar, who calls on Indian Muslims to participate in the "global jihad to give a final push to the collapsing edifice of America." The video, titled "Why is There No Storm in Your Ocean?," was translated by the SITE Intelligence Group. It was produced in May, but posted on jihadist forums on July 23. Asim Umar tells the Muslims of India that...

At least seven Iranian police officers have died in a clash with drugs smugglers in the east of the country, officials said. The shoot-out happened in Khorasan province near the Afghan border, a police chief told Iranian state radio. The report said four drugs traffickers had also been killed and another seriously wounded

Here's a fascinating politics/energy/international relations story that's flying below the radar now, but feels as though it could get huge. The news starts with Uranium One (UUU), a Toronto-listed uranium miner, whose shares plunged 38% on news that the Kazakhstan government was probing whether certain Kazakh mines it owns were acquired illegally. Specifically, it's looking at potentially illegal asset sales by Mukhtar Dzhakishev, the former head of state-owned uranium miner Kazatomprom, who later sought favors from the man who sold the assets to, Frank Giustra, and Bill Clinton. Reuters: [O]ne deal in question was the sale of a 30 percent...

http://www.makingsenseofjihad.com/2009/05/a-study-of-martyrs-in-a-time-of-alienation-vii.html A Study of “Martyrs in a Time of Alienation" Part VII In January 2008, Al-Fajr Media Center, an al-Qaida affiliated media group, released an extensive issue in its series, “Biographies of the Martyrs in the Land of Khorasan.” The book — in the summary translation used here — consists of 120 brief biographies of men who died in the insurgency against Coalition forces and regional governments. The following is a brief analysis (in green) of the book’s content based on a summary translation available through WNC (Dialog), see the “Introduction” post for record information.

Iran's state television today said the military would launch a series of large-scale exercises on August 19. State television quoted army deputy commander General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani as saying that the upcoming maneuvers "aim at introducing Iran's new defensive doctrine."Ashtiani reportedly said the exercises would involve both ground and air forces and would go on "for an unspecified period of time." Addressing reporters at a news briefing on August 16, Ashtiani said the war games would take place in West and East Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Baluchestan va Sistan, and Khorasan provinces. Most of those peripheral provinces also have large ethnic minority...

Tehran - Police in northeastern Iran are launching a new morality drive by confiscating alluring mannequins from boutiques and clothes stalls in the bazaar, authorities in the city of Bojnourd said on Monday. A spokesperson for the city's judiciary, who asked not be named, explained that the drive would tackle problems of "public chastity". Sixty five mannequins have been impounded so far. He explained the crack-down on tailors' dummies was part of a larger offensive against anti-social behaviour such as vandalism and biker gangs. Bojnourd owes its traditional religious climate to the nearby shrine city of Mashhad, a focal point...

1/10/2005 8:14:00 AM Parthian Circular City Found in Khorasan Tehran, Jan. 10 (CHN)— Iranian archeologists have found the architectural plan of a Parthian circular city in Nehbandan castle in southern Khorasan. Nehbandan castle is one of the most important ancient cities in Iran that has signs of different historical periods. Though it hasn’t been much excavated, archeologists have found remains from Parthian (250 BC – 226 AD) to Safavid (1501 – 1722) eras. “As this site hasn’t been studied much, we began studying the structures in this historical complex 2 years ago and found out that it has a circular...