The U.S. conducted a series of airstrikes in Syria on the evening of September 22, 2014. According to President Obama’s statement the following morning, some of these strikes were conducted “to disrupt plotting against the United States and our allies by seasoned al Qaeda operatives in Syria who are known as the Khorasan Group.”“Statement by the President on Airstrikes in Syria,” U.S. Department of State, September 23, 2014, http://www.state.gov/p/nea/rls/rm/232045.htm. The announcement effected an influx of news articles on the group. Because of the quick and heightened attention on Khorasan, many of these articles carried headlines with some variation of “What is Khorasan?”Gergory Korte, “What Is Khorasan Group, and Why Are We at War with It?” USA Today, September 23, 2014, http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/09/23/khorasan-group-in-syria-what-is-it/16105605/; “What Is the Khorasan Group?,” Al Jazeera America, September 23, 2014, http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/9/23/syria-khorasan-airstrikes.html; Jason Burke, “Who Are the Al-Qaida-Linked Khorasan Group the US Is Targeting in Syria?,” Guardian, September 23, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/23/us-airstrikes-in-syria-target-al-qaida-linked-khorasan-group-as-well-as-isis; Taylor Wofford, “What is the Khorasan Group and Why Is It Being Targeted by the U.S.?,” Newsweek, September 23, 2014, http://www.newsweek.com/what-khorasan-group-and-why-it-being-targeted-us-272789; Mike Levine, James Gordon Meek, Pierre Thomas and Lee Ferran, “What Is the Khorasan Group, Targeted by US in Syria?,” ABC News, September 23, 2014, http://abcnews.go.com/International/khorasan-group-targeted-us-syria/story?id=25700467. While outlets across the board continued to compare Khorasan to ISIS,Dan Kedmey, “Worse Than ISIS? A Primer on the Khorasan Group,” Time, September 23, 2014, http://time.com/3421701/khorasan-al-qaeda-iraq-isis-syria/; “ISIS Isn’t Alone: Khorasan Group May Pose Bigger Threat to U.S.,” NBC News, September 23, 2014, http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/isis-isnt-alone-khorasan-group-may-pose-bigger-threat-u-n209586; Jeremy Bender and Brett Logiurato, “Meet the Khorasan, the Terrorist Group That’s Suddenly a Bigger Threat than ISIS,” Business Insider, September 23, 2014, http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-the-khorasan-group-airstrikes-isis-islamic-state-2014-9; Joe Coscarelli, “What We Know So Far About the Khorasan Group, the More ‘Imminent’ Threat Than ISIS,” New York Magazine, September 23, 2014, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/09/khorasan-group-explainer-what-we-know-so-far.html. many also reported on Khorasan’s suspected constituency.

An ABC News report from September 23, for example, put the number of Khorasan members at around 50.Mike Levine, James Gordon Meek, Pierre Thomas and Lee Ferran, “What Is the Khorasan Group, Targeted by US in Syria?,” ABC News, September 23, 2014, http://abcnews.go.com/International/khorasan-group-targeted-us-syria/story?id=25700467. ABC also confirmed the threat posed by Khorasan, quoting one Pentagon spokesperson as saying, “We had very good indications that this group, which is a very dangerous group, was plotting and planning imminent attacks against Western target to include the U.S. homeland.”Mike Levine, James Gordon Meek, Pierre Thomas and Lee Ferran, “What Is the Khorasan Group, Targeted by US in Syria?,” ABC News, September 23, 2014, hhttp://abcnews.go.com/International/khorasan-group-targeted-us-syria/story?id=25700467.  That same day, NBC News reported that the number of Khorasan members was less than 100, according to National Counterterrorism Center’s former director, Michael Leiter.“ISIS Isn’t Alone: Khorasan Group May Pose Bigger Threat to U.S.,” NBC News, http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/isis-isnt-alone-khorasan-group-may-pose-bigger-threat-u-n209586.

At this point, a number of outlets began outlining their suspicions that what the U.S. called “Khorasan” was actually not a new or separate entity from other iterations of al-Qaeda.