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.
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The United States has carried out air strikes that it believes have degraded the chemical weapons capabilities of Islamic State in Iraq after using information obtained from a captured militant, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
President Barack Obama’s administration in December implemented a more aggressive policy of pursuing Islamic State militants on the ground, deploying a commando force to Iraq that it said would be dedicated to capturing and killing militant leaders in clandestine operations, as well as generating intelligence leading to more raids. The substance causes severe burns of the skin, eyes, and respiratory tract, as it can cause harm when inhaled.
One official said that the gas was not concentrated enough to kill anyone, but that it could maim people.
Islamic State terrorists have managed to load a powdered form of mustard gas into artillery shells, the detainee reportedly told interrogators.
On Capitol Hill, Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command, told a Senate panel that he has “concerns about our broader strategy against ISIL” – but stopped short of recommending any changes to the current plan. He is now being held in a temporary USA detention facility in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil and will eventually be turned over to Iraqi or Kurdish authorities.
“What I can tell you is, and as the [Defense] Secretary [Ashton Carter] said recently, the Expeditionary Targeting Force [ETF] has begun operations in Iraq, but we will not discuss the details of those missions when it risks compromising operational security”. It was the first raid by the ETF, which is based in Iraq and created to conduct raids against ISIS figures in Iraq and Syria.
As is protocol, Defense Department officials notified the International Committee of the Red Cross, which monitors the treatment of detainees, that they were holding an Islamic State fighter.
Chemical warfare agents, broadly condemned and banned by most nations under global convention, are indiscriminate.
Top Islamic State commander leader Omar al-Shishani, known as Omar the Chechen, was badly wounded in a recent USA strike in northeastern Syria, though not killed as first believed, according to a monitoring group.
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The CIA chief stated U.S. intelligence was actively involved in searching for chemical weapons or labs producing those in Syria and Iraq.
