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.
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“The ICRC visits people held in detention facilities run by various authorities in Iraq, including those who are detained in relation to the current non-international armed conflict against the so-called Islamic State group”, she said in a statement. Delta Force now staffs the targeting task force.
Note that the administration has been clear that we will not hold this or any other ISIS captive in our own custody for long, but instead will look to turn him over, eventually, to Iraqi custody. If anyone knows a reliable source, please pass it along.
Shishani is believed to have died along with about 12 other militants in a series of US airstrikes near the town of Shadadi, which was recently retaken by U.S.-backed Kurdish and Arab forces.
By Pentagon count, ISIS has mounted a dozen chemical weapons attacks in Iraq and Syria, a fact confirmed by CIA Director John Brennan in a “60 Minutes” interview.
The program is one the USA military has been tracking, with Defense Secretary Ash Carter saying last month the Pentagon was prepared to strike against it.
Defense Department officials said the detainee, 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.
Meanwhile, further special forces raids targeting chemical weapons experts are planned, the intelligence officials said.
“We have a number of instances where ISIL has used chemical munitions on the battlefield”, Brennan said.
The threat of a chemical weapons attack has anxious the public since 9/11, so although the United States government has an interest in reassuring the public that it has the situation under control, the terrorist group’s more practical – and potent – weapons are likely still guns and explosives, Mr. Barrett says.
It could not immediately be learned if there were Iraqi forces took part in the raid to capture the man, or whether Iraqis were involved in the airstrikes.
Mustard gas, which is liquid at ambient temperature, is a powerful irritant and blistering agent which causes severe damage to the skin, eyes and respiratory system and internal organs. “(It’s) the first time an extremist group has produced and used a chemical warfare agent in an attack since Aum Shinrikyo used sarin in Japan in 1995”. Tests confirmed mustard gas was used in a town in Syria when IS was launching attacks there in August 2015.
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The Islamic State group is believed to have developed and used mustard gas in Iraq and Syria.
