Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook provided the following statement:
French national David Drugeon, an al-Qaeda operative and explosives expert, was killed in a Coalition airstrike July 5, 2015, near Aleppo, Syria. Drugeon was a member of a network of veteran al-Qaeda operatives, sometimes called the Khorasan Group, who are plotting attacks against the United States, its allies, and partners. As an explosive expert, he trained other extremists in Syria and sought to plan external attacks against western targets. Drugeon's death will degrade and disrupt ongoing external operations of al-Qaeda against the United States, its allies, and partners.