French jihadist David Drugeon, an alleged bombmaker for an al Qaeda affiliate, has been killed in a coalition strike in Syria, a US official said Friday. Drugeon has been described as a key figure in the al Qaeda offshoot Khorasan group, which operates in Syria and which American officials say is a dangerous militant outfit planning to attack the United States and other Western countries.
US officials previously thought Drugeon had been killed in a November 2014 drone strike, but the claim was later disproved. "He's definitely dead," a US official told AFP on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Drugeon was hit in a strike in July, according to a second US official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. According to that official, Drugeon was a "very key technical member" of the Khorasan group and an expert at making "non-metallic Improvised Explosive Devices" - the military term for homemade bombs. "Khorasan is a very dangerous organisation which uses cutting-edge technology for (preparing) attacks in the West," the official said.