A defense official announced Thursday morning that a US airstrike launched in Syria have killed Khorasan's senior bomb-maker. The bomb-maker was identified as David (Dauod) Drugeon, a 24-year-old French jihadist and a member of the Khorasan group.
According to an official that has access to the latest details about the strikes, the US airstrike happened overnight on Wednesday. Fox News reported the drone blasted a vehicle traveling in Syria's Idlib province that was believed to be carrying the bomb-maker.
As said by the sources, the driver of the vehicle is believed to have lost a leg and was expected to die. A second person thought to be Drugeon, a skilled-bomb maker in his 20s, was killed. US defense officials would only confirm that the US had carried out airstrikes against the Khorasan group Wednesday.
The Pentagon is still carrying out bomb damage assessment following the strike and cannot confirm that Drugeon was killed though defense sources said he has been targeted.
The Khorasan terrorist group is a jihadist network of Al-Qaeda veterans. NBC News reported they were targeted when the United States launched airstrikes in Syria in September. Those US airstrikes also targeted the Islamic State. As said by the US officials, the Khorasan was plotting attacks against the US at the time.
"These al Qaeda operatives are taking advantage of the Syrian conflict to advance attacks against Western interests," Central Command said. "This network was plotting to attack in Europe or the homeland, and we took decisive action to protect our interests and remove their capability to act."
In a statement, the US military's Central Command announced Thursday morning that five US airstrikes targeted the Khorasan Group in Syria on Wednesday night. The strikes damaged the militants' building, bomb-making facilities and training areas.
"We will continue to take any action necessary to disrupt attack plotting against U.S. interests," Central Command added.
During the announcement, the skilled bomb-maker Drugeon was not mentioned. However, CNN reported the command said that it has "initial indications that (the strikes) resulted in the intended effects.
Also on Thursday, Pentagon Spokesman Col. Steve Warren said the strikes involved both manned and unmanned aircrafts, including an MQ-9 Reaper, B-1 bombers and F-16 fighters.
Since US airstrikes started in Syria Sept. 22, it was only the second time the US coalition aircrafts have targeted the Khorasan group. As stated by French Express reporter Eric Pelletier, who documented Drugeon's life as one of the most wanted Al Qaeda bomb-makers, Drugeon was born in 1989 and converted to Islam after his parents divorced when he was 14.
In 2010, Drugeon travelled to Egypt to learn Arabic and then went to Pakistan to join an Al Qaeda faction fighting US troops in Afghanistan. He learned to make bombs in Pakistan. French intelligence sources believed he developed a method to dip clothes in explosives that could pass through airport security undetected.
Sometime in 2013 or very early 2014, the bomb-maker, Drugeon is believed to have left Pakistan, and to have traveled to Syria to join up with the Khorasan group. A significant figure of al Qaeda forces were making the same journey. They were convinced that Syria now offered a better refuge away from the prospect lines of US airstrikes.
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