The US-led coalition on Monday targeted Islamic State in Iraq and Syria with two dozen strikes near 15 cities, the US military said in a statement released on Tuesday detailing the latest round of daily attacks against the militant group. One official called him “the key leader”, but others could not say if he runs the entire chemical weapons program for ISIS. He was captured by a Special Operations task force established by the Pentagon a year ago to intensify the us fight against the militant group, arrayed across a wide area in Iraq and Syria.
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With ISIS under continual pressure by USA airstrikes and local forces, officials said, there are concerns that ISIS could turn more to the use of chemical weapons in desperation.
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the capture and interrogation of al-Afari showed Washington’s new approach in Iraq is already paying off.
The suspect was held in a raid last month in northern Iraq, according to the unnamed officials. The officials say they do not intend to establish a long-term USA facility to hold Islamic State detainees, and Obama administration officials have ruled out sending any to the United States military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The suspect is now being grilled by USA officials at a detention facility in Erbil, Iraq, The Times reported on Wednesday. ISIS likely hopes to frighten Iraqi troops by threatening to employ the gas on the battlefield but does not have the logistical expertise or resources to carry out the kind of chemical attacks that terrorized the anti-Assad Syrians or the Kurds under Saddam Hussein. U.S. Special Operations forces were certain he was at the location in Iraq after covertly surveying it for some days. The weapons were thought to be used against Kurdish forces and other US allies. They are the first major American combat force on the ground there since the United States pulled out of the country at the end of 2011.
“ISIS has also used toxic chemicals in Iraq and Syria, including the blister agent Sulphur mustard”.
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Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division headquarters and the 2nd Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Campbell, Ky. – a brigade can include anywhere between 3,500 to 5,000 forces – will head back to Iraq later this year. Overall, the recent battles have killed between 75 and 100 fighters backed by the US and wounded 250 to 300. He said it was the first time a terrorist group had used chemical weapons in an attack since the extremist Aum Shinrikyo group used sarin in the Tokyo subway system in 1995.
