'Dead' French bombmaker: a football fan turned jihadist killed in Syria

David Drugeon is thought to have been travelling in a car in Syria’s Idlib province when a drone strike hit the vehicle and likely killed him and the driver, a US official and media reports said Thursday. Born in 1989 in the western French city of Vannes into a middle-class family, he became passionate about football and would travel to the southern city of Marseille with his father to see his favourite team play. When his parents divorced in 2002, Drugeon and his brother Cyril drew close to ultraconservative Salafist Muslims who would gather in their district. Drugeon is suspected of having advanced bomb making skills and was a key part of the Khorasan Group, which American officials say is a dangerous militant cell plotting to attack Western countries.

His father was a bus driver. The boy studied hard. We don’t understand what went through his head.

A woman whose daughter was in his class and requested anonymity

Other strikes rained down on Syria Thursday. American aircraft bombed al-Qaida-linked militants and activists said another radical rebel group also was hit — an apparent expansion of the aerial campaign against the Islamic State group to target other extremists deemed a threat to the West. The strikes risk further alienating many in the Syrian opposition who view the targeted extremist groups as important allies in the fight against the Syrian regime, while leaving Syrian President Bashar al-Assad untouched. It also could undermine Washington’s already shaky plan to work with what it considers moderate rebels against Islamic extremists in Syria.

Fighting terrorism must be part of a complete strategy, built on the basis that the [Assad] regime is the source of terrorism, and created it.

Abdul-Basit Sied, Syrian opposition official

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