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US forces captured head of Isis chemical weapons program in Iraq last month US forces captured head of Isis chemical weapons program in Iraq last month
(about 3 hours later)
US special forces captured the head of the Islamic State militant group’s effort to develop chemical weapons in a raid last month in northern Iraq, two senior Iraqi intelligence officials have told the Associated Press, the first known major success of Washington’s more aggressive policy of pursuing the jihadis on the ground. US special forces captured a top chemical weapons engineer working for Islamic State during a raid last month in northern Iraq, officials said on Wednesday, dealing a blow to the militants’ pursuit of what Pentagon officials call “weapons of mass destruction”.
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 Isis leaders in clandestine operations, as well as generating intelligence leading to more raids. Sleiman Daoud al-Afari was snatched close to a month ago in the town of Badoosh, north-west of the Isis stronghold of Mosul. A senior Iraqi official said he was an industrial engineer in former dictator Saddam Hussein’s military and had been a member of Isis throughout all its earlier incarnations.
US 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. Related: 'My body was burning': survivors recall horror of Isis mustard gas attack
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. Isis is believed to have used mustard gas at least twice against Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, and once against anti-Assad rebels in northern Syria. The latter attack killed a four-year-old girl in the village of Merae, near the Turkish border. It was launched as Isis tried to move towards the Syrian border town of Azaz. At least six other residents of the village were hospitalised in Turkey after the attack, several with giant weeping blisters across their body.
He was captured in a raid near the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar, the officials said. They would not give further details. It was also reported on Wednesday that more than 40 people suffered partial choking and skin irritation in northern Iraq on Tuesday when Isis fired mortar shells and Katyusha rockets filled with “poisonous substances” into their village.
The officials, who both have first-hand knowledge of the individual and of the Isis chemical program, spoke on condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to brief the media. No confirmation was available from US officials. Afari is reportedly in his 50s. Hisham al-Hashimi, an Iraqi author and academic, said: “He is the technical expert on the chemical weapons project, but Taha Rahim al-Dulaimi is the ideological driver of this. He is an important figure within the organisation.”
The US-led coalition began targeting Isis’ chemical weapons infrastructure with airstrikes and special operations raids over the past two months, the Iraqi intelligence officials and a western security official in Baghdad told the AP. The prospect of Isis gaining large scale chemical weapons would raise the stakes significantly in Iraq, where a chemical attack on the Kurdish village of Halabja by Saddam’s forces in 1988 left thousands of people dead. The extremist group is believed to have set up a special unit for chemical weapons research, made up of Iraqi scientists from the Saddam-era weapons programme along with foreign experts.
Airstrikes are targeting laboratories and equipment, and further special forces raids targeting chemical weapons experts are planned, the intelligence officials said. They and the western official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the press. Jeff Davis, a spokesman for the Pentagon, declined to confirm that an individual had been captured but noted: “We’ve said before that they have used chemical weapons in both Iraq and Syria: sulphur mustard specifically. Anyone who’s making and using weapons of mass destruction, particularly a terrorist group like Isil, would be well advised to know that we don’t intend to let them keep doing that.”
Isis has been making a determined effort to develop chemical weapons, Iraqi and American officials have said. It is believed to have set up a special unit for chemical weapons research, made up of Iraqi scientists from the Saddam-era weapons program as well as foreign experts. Iraqi officials expressed particular worry over the effort because Isis gained so much room to operate and hide chemical laboratories after overrunning around a third of the country in the summer of 2014, joined with territory they controlled in neighboring Syria. Iraqi and US officials claimed Afari’s capture as the first known major success of a new strategy to deploy a commando unit to Iraq dedicated to capturing and killing Isis leaders in clandestine operations. Little is known about it but defence secretary Ash Carter told a Senate hearing in December: “This is a no-kidding force that will be doing important things.”
Still, its progress has been limited. It is believed to have created limited amounts of mustard gas. Tests confirmed mustard gas was used in a town in Syria when Isis was launching attacks there in August 2015. Other unverified reports in both Iraq and Syria accuse Isis of using chemical agents on the battlefield. The US-led coalition began targeting Isis’s chemical weapons infrastructure with airstrikes and special operations raids over the past two months, Iraqi intelligence officials and a western security official in Baghdad told the Associated Press. Airstrikes are targeting laboratories and equipment, and further special forces raids targeting chemical weapons experts are planned, the intelligence officials said.
But so far, experts say, the extremist group appears incapable of launching a large-scale chemical weapons attack, which requires not only expertise, but also the proper equipment, materials and a supply chain to produce enough of the chemical agent to pose a significant threat. Khaled al-Obaidi, the Iraqi defence minister, insisted that Isis, which seized swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq in 2014, lacks “chemical capabilities”. He told reporters at a base outside Tikrit that attacks carried out by the group are only intended to “hurt the morale of our fighters”, since they have not yet caused any casualties.
“More than a symbolic attack seems to me to be beyond the grasp of Isis,” said Dan Kaszeta, a former US army chemical officer and Department of Homeland Security expert who is now a private consultant. “Furthermore, the chemicals we are talking about are principally chlorine and sulfur mustard, both of which are actually quite poor weapons by modern standards.” But reports on Wednesday said a village in northern Iraq had become the latest target of a chemical attack. None of the 40 casualties died but five of remain in hospital, health officials in Taza, a mainly Shia Turkmen village 12 miles south of Kirkuk, told Reuters.
The United States has been leading a coalition waging airstrikes against Isis in Iraq and Syria for more than a year. The campaign has been key to backing Iraqi and Kurdish forces that have slowly retaken significant parts of the territory the militants had seized. Kirkuk province governor Najmuddin Kareem was quoted as saying: “There were poisonous substances in these shells. We don’t know what.”
But after coming under pressure at home for greater action against the militants, the Obama administration moved to the tactic of stepped up commando operations on the ground. Using an alternative name for Isis, he added: “Daesh wants to scare off the population. They want to show they have chemical weapons just like the previous regime.”
Last year, US special forces killed a key Isis leader and captured his wife in a raid in Syria, but the new force in Iraq was intended as a more dedicated deployment. American officials have been deeply secretive about the operation. Its size is unknown, thought it may be fewer than 100 troops. A total of 24 shells and rockets were fired into Taza from the nearby Bashir area, added Wasta Rasul, a commander of the Kurdish peshmerga forces in the region.
“This is a no-kidding force that will be doing important things,” was about all US defense secretary Ash Carter would say about the force in testimony to the Senate armed services committee in December. The US has been leading a coalition waging airstrikes against Isis in Iraq and Syria for more than a year. The campaign is working to support Iraqi and Kurdish forces that have slowly retaken significant parts of territory the militants had seized.
But on Wednesday, General Joseph Votel, the current commander of US Special Operations Command and tapped to lead US Central Command, told a Senate panel that he has concerns about progress against Isis in Syria. Throughout his confirmation hearing, Votel indicated he would take a more aggressive approach to the Middle East and South Asia than his cautious predecessor, General Lloyd Austin.
Votel said he would conduct a strategy review on Syria, to see if the US had “the coherence that is required, that we have the resources we need … and that we have the authorities”, suggesting an increase of troops or equipment could be a feature of his almost certain tenure at Central Command.
Votel indicated that ousting Isis from the Iraqi city of Mosul and its Syrian capitol of Raqqa “will take additional resources.” Carter, the US defence secretary, has set the recapture of both cities as a critical goal for the war in 2016, a mission met with much scepticism surrounding its feasibility.