Khorasan: Who are they? Could there be another 9/11 plot?

Pro-ISIS demonstrators outside the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, Iraq in June (AP)

The civil war in Syria has brought about a new subgroup of jihadists that pose as a new threat to the U.S. While the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is already known worldwide, there is another lesser-known group to be concerned about, one that could possibly recreate a 9/11 plot again. The group is called Khorasan.

According to the CIA, the Khorasan is a group that combines the threat of advanced bomb-making and Western imports.

CIA Deputy Director Mike Morell made a brief statement in "CBS This Morning" where he talked about the group Khorasan.

"Khorasan members came from Pakistan. They focus on attacks in the West," he said.

Bob Orr of CBS News reported the same thing, that this group is actually building bombs that can be brought on airlines. Plus, they are finding Western jihadists to carry the bombs.

But the big question is, why would Khorasan want to create a similar plot to 9/11? Morell said that Khorasan believes that the symbol of the west is its aviation industry.

"They believe if they damage the airlines they can damage the American economy, as we saw with 9/11," Morell said. They saw how the U.S. crumbled when 9/11 happened and they want to hit the U.S. at its heart once again.

Further, Mortell explained how dangerous the group is, saying "That is very worrisome because that brings together two pieces of a potential plot in the West. It brings together Western fighters who have gone to Syria to fight -- so capable of carrying out operations in the West -- with this bomb technology that Asiri (al Qaeda's master bomb builder) brings to the table. You put those things together, you have a serious threat."

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