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Iraqi Scientist Helped ISIS Make Chemical Weapons
(Washington Post) Joby Warrick - Iraqi scientist Suleiman al-Afari, a geologist with Iraq's Ministry of Industry and Minerals in Mosul, accepted an assignment from Islamic State to supervise the manufacture of lethal toxins in 2014. He described in detail the terrorist group's successful attempts to make sulfur mustard gas. Weapons created by Islamic State were used in scores of attacks on soldiers and civilians in Iraq and Syria, collectively inflicting hundreds of casualties. Progress on the program appears to have stalled in early 2016, after the U.S. and Iraq launched an aggressive campaign to destroy production facilities and kill or capture its leaders. Islamic State leaders moved equipment and perhaps chemicals from Iraq to Syria in 2016, and some of it may have been buried or hidden. Moreover, the knowledge and skills acquired from the program undoubtedly still exist, tucked away in flash drives and in the memories of the surviving participants.