US intelligence officials: Airstrikes didn't wipe out threat from terrorist cell in Syria

FILE - In this Sept. 23, 2014 file photo, provided by an anti-Bashar Assad activist group Edlib News Network (ENN), which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrian citizens checking a damaged house that they say was targeted by the coalition airstrikes, in the village of Kfar Derian, a base for the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, a rival of the Islamic State group, between the northern province of Aleppo and Idlib, Syria. The barrage of U.S. cruise missiles last month aimed at a terror cell in Syria killed just one or two of the key militants, according to American intelligence officials who say the al-Qaida group is still believed to be plotting attacks against targets in the United States and Europe. (AP Photo/Edlib News Network ENN, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE- In this Sept. 23, 2014 file image provided by the U.S. Navy, the guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG 58) launches a Tomahawk cruise missile as seen from the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush. Arab countries’ prominent role in initial airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Syria. The barrage of U.S. cruise missiles last month aimed at a terror cell in Syria killed just one or two of the key militants, according to American intelligence officials who say the al-Qaida group is still believed to be plotting attacks against targets in the United States and Europe. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy, Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Eric Garst, File) (The Associated Press)

U.S. intelligence officials say airstrikes last month near the Syrian city of Aleppo killed just one or two key members of an al-Qaida cell that's plotting attacks on the West.

Officials say many militants had scattered before the strikes — fleeing after news reports had highlighted the fighters' activities — so the strikes didn't deal a crippling blow.

Among those who survived is a French-born man who fought in Afghanistan and is of great concern to U.S. intelligence officials.

The strikes were effective in setting back the Khorasan Group.

But Rep. Adam Schiff — a member of the House Intelligence Committee — says no one thinks the strikes will end the threats from the militants.