Sources Say Recent U.S. Airstrike Killed Top al Qaeda Bomb Maker In Syria

A recent U.S. airstrike in Syria reportedly killed a French-born bomb-maker who was working for a jihadist group in the area.

A source close to the airstrikes told CNN on Thursday that a recent U.S.-led airstrike near Idlib, Syria most likely destroyed a vehicle carrying David Drugeon, a Frenchman who traveled to Syria to help the Khorasan militant group fashion bombs. The Khorasan group is made up of several top al Qaeda leaders who have traveled to Syria from Iraq.

According to Fox News, multiple sources have indicated that Drugeon, 24, was in one of the vehicles struck by the U.S. drone, although the Pentagon has yet to confirm the Islam convert's death, saying in a statement that "initial indications that (the strikes) resulted in the intended effects by striking terrorists."

"This network was plotting to attack in Europe or the homeland, and we took decisive action to protect our interests and remove their capability to act," U.S. Central Command added in its statement, released Thursday. "We will continue to take any action necessary to disrupt attack plotting against U.S. interests."

Terrorism experts, including retired director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Matthew Olsen, have said that the power and threat of the Khorasan group remains dangerous.

"This group was in a position to train without any sort of interference, they were able to recruit operatives. We saw that they were looking to test explosives. So they were in the advanced stages of plotting. And again they had both intent and that capability that put them nearing an execution phase of an attack," Olsen told CNN in a recent interview.