US-led coalition bombs IS chemical weapons sites
Iraqi army vehicles and a helicopter deploy in the front line in al-Anbar desert, where the country's forces are fighting the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, on March 9, 2016. (AFP)
The US-led coalition carried out the first air strikes on Islamic State chemical weapons sites, the Pentagon said Thursday, acting on crucial information from a captured senior insurgent.
The successful multiple bombings came as a result of intelligence from Sulayman Dawud al-Bakkar, also known as Abu Dawud, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said, confirming the name of the IS group operative said to be a chemical weapons expert for the extremists.
His capture by US special forces in February -- Dawud 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.
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, using an alternative acronym for the IS extremists.
"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 airstrikes that have disrupted and degraded ISIL's ability to produce chemical weapons and will continue to inform our operations in the future."
On Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis declined to confirm that US forces had captured an IS chemical weapons expert.
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