WASHINGTON (AP) - American airstrikes overnight in Syria targeted a cell of al-Qaida militants, hitting and possibly killing a top bomb-maker in the group, two senior U.S. officials said Thursday, amid widespread reports that other rebel factions were also hit.
It wasn't certain whether the bomb-maker, French militant David Drugeon, was killed or injured, but the officials said the strikes hit their intended targets near Sarmada, in the country's northwest. The officials were not authorized to discuss the issue publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.
Gen. Lloyd Austin, the Central Command commander in charge of U.S. military operations throughout the Middle East, said separately at a Washington forum that he would not discuss results of the strikes until they had been more fully studied. He suggested, however, Drugeon may have been hit, or at least targeted.
"He is clearly one of the leadership elements and one of the most dangerous elements in that organization," Austin said. "And so any time we can take their leadership out, it's a good thing."
One of the U.S. officials said Drugeon's bomb-making skills were nearly as worrisome as those of Ibrahim al-Asiri, a member of al-Qaida's Yemen affiliate who has built three nonmetallic devices that were smuggled onto U.S.-bound jet liners. None detonated.
Drudgeon, a convert to Islam believed to be 24, spent three years fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan before coming to Syria in late 2012 or early 2014, U.S. officials have said.
In Paris, the French interior minister refused to confirm reports Drudgeon was killed or injured.
At the Pentagon, Army Col. Steve Warren said the strikes hit five targets at two locations.
Noting that reports coming out of the region suggest members of other militant groups were hit, Warren that the Khorasan Group was the pre-planned target of the strikes.
The Khorasan Group, he said, "is a group of personnel, some of whom are also al-Nusra affiliated, some of whom are al-Qaida affiliated, some of whom are affiliated with other organizations. But these strikes weren't specifically targeting any of those other organizations. They were targeting the Khorasan group. If a terrorist happens to be a member of both groups, so be it."