The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that two Islamic State leaders were killed by coalition strikes.
Abu Bakr al-Turkmani was killed in a Sept. 10 strike near Tal Afar, Iraq, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said. Al-Turkmani, an administrative emir, belonged to al Qaeda in Iraq before joining the Islamic State and was a “close associate” to Islamic State leaders in Mosul and Tal Afar.
The Pentagon also announced a coalition strike killed French national David Drugeon on July 5 near Aleppo, Syria. Drugeon, an explosives expert, belonged to the Khorasan Group, an al Qaeda affiliated terrorist group.
“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,” the statement said.
Cook would not say if the strikes were conducted by drones or fixed-wing aircraft. He told reporters that both attacks demonstrate that the Islamic State is still vulnerable to Pentagon strikes.
“ISIL’s leadership, again, remains within the reach of the coalition, and that should be a message that we’re sending from here loud and clear,” Cook said.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, called Drugeon’s death “another major setback” for al-Qaeda and said removing him from the battlefield will keep the country’s airports safer.
“Drugeon’s expertise in building non-metallic explosives and his connections to foreign fighters has made his removal from the battlefield a high priority, and his death is a significant blow to the Khorasan group,” Schiff said in a statement.
