Iraqi Officials: US Captured Top IS Chemical Arms Engineer
Source: ABC News
U.S. special forces captured the head of the Islamic State group's unit trying to develop chemical weapons in a raid last month in northern Iraq, two senior Iraqi intelligence officials told the Associated Press, the first known major success of Washington's more aggressive policy of pursuing the jihadis on the ground.
The Obama administration launched the new strategy in December, deploying a commando force to Iraq that it said would be dedicated to capturing and killing IS leaders in clandestine operations, as well as generating intelligence leading to more raids.
U.S. officials said last week that the expeditionary team had captured an Islamic State leader but had refused to identify him, saying only that he had been held for two or three weeks and was being questioned.
The two Iraqi officials identified the man as Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, who worked for Saddam Hussein's now-dissolved Military Industrialization Authority where he specialized in chemical and biological weapons. They said al-Afari, who is about 50 years old, heads the Islamic State group's recently established branch for the research and development of chemical weapons.
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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iraqi-officials-us-captured-top-chemical-arms-engineer-37516761
Bradical79
(4,490 posts)leftynyc
(26,060 posts)A job well done.
Eugene
(61,823 posts)Source: New York Times
By HELENE COOPER and ERIC SCHMITT MARCH 9, 2016
WASHINGTON An Islamic State detainee currently in American custody at a temporary detention facility in Erbil, Iraq, is a specialist in chemical weapons whom American military officials are questioning about the militant Sunni groups plans to use the banned substances in Iraq and Syria, defense officials said.
The detainee was identified by officials as Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, a chemical and biological weapons expert who once worked for Saddam Husseins Military Industrialization Authority.
Mr. al-Afari, described by the military as a significant Islamic State operative who was captured a month ago by commandos in an elite American Special Operations force, has, under interrogation, provided his captors with details about how the group had weaponized mustard gas into powdered form and loaded it into artillery shells, the officials said.
One official said that the gas was not concentrated enough to kill anyone, but that it could maim people.
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Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/10/world/middleeast/isis-detainee-mustard-gas.html