Reports out of Syria’s Idlib Province say that a recent US drone strike destroyed a car, costing the driver a leg. Speculation among US officials is that the passenger, killed in the attack, may have been David Drugeon.
Drugeon is a 24-year-old French convert who joined al-Qaeda, and US officials have been hyping his as a potential “top bomb maker” for the largely fictitious Khorasan faction.
It should be noted that past US speculation about who they’ve killed in attacks on Khorasan, a group whose name US officials simply made up, have not panned out, and most of the casualties in past salvos were never conclusively identified.
Though if confirmed US officials would no doubt cheer Drugeon’s death as a great victory, their speculation about “explosive clothes” centers around technology dating back to the mid 19th century, and nothing has been publicly released showing he was at all high-ranking within al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front, let alone an imminent threat to the US.
Attacks on Nusra members have been a huge disaster for the US war in Syria, driving al-Qaeda out of its makeshift alliance with US-allied rebels into an alliance with ISIS, and leading to the destruction of some key US rebel factions.