The leader of a group of Al-Qaeda veterans which Washington calls the Khorasan Group has been killed in a coalition air strike in Syria, the Pentagon said Sunday, confirming previous claims.

Sanafi al-Nasr, a Saudi national whose full name is Abdul Mohsen Adballah Ibrahim al Charekh, was killed in an air attack in the northwest of the country Thursday, it said.

"This operation deals a significant blow to the Khorasan Group's plans to attack the United States and our allies," Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said in a statement.