Two U.S. sources told CNN Friday that the U.S. believes a July airstrike killed French bombmaker David Drugeon, who was most recently tied to the Khorasan Group but who also has ties to al Qaeda.
But the U.S. hasn’t made the “official call” yet, the sources said.
A Twitter account that purportedly belongs to Sanafi al Nasr, a senior figure in al Qaeda in Syria, announced Drugeon’s death in a coalition airstrike in the countryside west of Aleppo, Syria, CNN Terror Analyst Paul Cruickshank reported. In eulogizing Drugeon, al Nasr mentioned an airstrike late last year that injured Drugeon.
“It’s a big get,” Cruickshank said. “Drugeon was a skilled bombmaker who had access to a lot of Europeans and Westerners who could be equipped with a device to potentially target Western passenger jets.”
It’s unclear whether the strike that killed Drugeon was specifically targeting him or whether it was a so-called signature strike, called in based on a pattern of activity.
The French Foreign Ministry declined to comment.