Pentagon: Coalition strikes kill 2 well-known jihadists

Coalition forces carried out an air strike in Iraq that killed a senior leader of the Daesh group, the Pentagon said Tuesday, also confirming the death in Syria of a French jihadist.

Abu Bakr al-Turkmani died September 10 in a strike in Tal Afar in northern Iraq, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook told reporters.

"He was an Daesh administrative emir, he was part of Al-Qaeda in Iraq before joining Daesh and was a close associate to multiple Daesh senior leaders in Iraq," Cook said, using an alternative acronym for the Daesh group.

Cook also confirmed the death of French jihadist David Drugeon, who died in an airstrike near Aleppo, Syria on July 5.

Drugeon was a member of a network of veteran Al-Qaeda operatives sometimes called the Khorasan Group, which plots attacks against the West, Cook said.

"As an explosives expert, he trained other extremists in Syria and sought to plan other attacks against Western targets," he added.

AFP reported Drugeon's death on September 11.

He was born in 1989 and had converted to Islam aged 13 before drawing close to ultraconservative Salafist Muslims.
Source: AFP