U.S.-led coalition “successfully bombs IS chemical sites”

PanARMENIAN.Net - The U.S.-led coalition has carried out the first air strikes on Islamic State chemical weapons sites, the Pentagon said Thursday, March 10, acting on information from a senior operative described as the extremists' top chemical expert, AFP reports.

The successful "multiple" bombings came as a result of detailed intelligence from Sulayman Dawud al-Bakkar, also known as Abu Dawud, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said, confirming Dawud's capture by U.S. special forces in Iraq last month.

The snaring of Dawud, who was transferred Thursday into Iraqi custody after interrogation, appears to be a major boon in the fight against the IS group in Iraq and Syria, and Cook said it had yielded almost immediate results as well as critical information for the future.

Cook described Dawud as "ISIL's emir of chemical and traditional weapons manufacturing."

"His capture removed a key ISIL leader from the battlefield and provided the coalition with important information about ISIL's chemical weapons capabilities," Cook said, according to AFP.

"Through Dawud, the coalition learned details about ISIL's chemical weapon facilities and production, as well as the people involved.

"The information has resulted in multiple coalition air strikes that have disrupted and degraded ISIL's ability to produce chemical weapons and will continue to inform our operations in the future."

The chemical weapons expert was picked up by U.S. forces that the Pentagon only recently deployed to Iraq to conduct raids against the Islamic State group.

The strikes on the chemical facilities -- it was not immediately known exactly where and when the raids took place -- had carefully "factored in" the risk to the civilian population, Cook added.