The State Department announced today that Joe Asperman, a French national, has been designated as a terrorist. Asperman works as “a senior chemical weapons expert for ISIS” and “oversaw chemical operations production within Syria for ISIS and the deployment of these chemical weapons at the battlefront.”
Israel struck a suspected chemical weapons facility near Masyaf, Syria earlier today. The facility may have been run by the Syrian regime’s Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC), which has been sanctioned by the US government for its role in producing chemical weapons and the means to deploy them.
The US government designated two senior Islamic State figures today, saying they are involved in the group’s chemical weapons program. US officials have previously said that so-called caliphate uses a “mustard agent” in its attacks.
US warplanes bombed an Islamic State chemical weapons factory near the town of Qayyarah. US forces based at Qayyarah Airfiled West, or Q-West, have been recently targeted with a shell containing a mustard agent.
Chemical weapons attack alleged in Syria
Abu Malik was associated with al Qaeda in Iraq and then the Islamic State for a decade before he was killed.
The long-awaited report by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons indicates that Assad regime forces were targeted in three of the five “probable” chemical weapons attacks in Syria this year.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant announced that it would coordinate with other Syrian rebel groups, including the Free Syrian Army, to take revenge for a chemical weapons attack last week in the capital that is said to have killed more than 300 people.
President Obama’s deputy national security adviser said that the US will provide military and other aid to the Supreme Military Council and the Syrian Opposition Coalition, despite that fact that these groups have supported the Al Nusrah Front in the past.
The al Qaeda cell is said to have been plotting to use sarin and mustard gas against a religious procession in Iraq, and was planning to move the chemical weapons to the US, Canada, and Europe.
From ‘Fallujah Awakens’: a chlorine truck bomb deployed by insurgents against the village of Albu Aifan on March 16, 2007.
The use of chemical weapons has yet to be confirmed. Sixteen Syrian soldiers are said to be among the 26 people killed in the purported chemical attack.
A Turkish jihadist site claims in a short statement and accompanying video that the Free Syrian Army has found chemical weapons equipment left behind by government forces at a military base.
The successful assault on the northern city of Tal Afar brought the prospect of chemical warfare in Iraq to the fore. Two al Qaeda linked groups claimed to have conducted successful attacks using chemical weapons last week. The Army of the Victorious Sect stated they attacked the Interior Ministry with rockets equipped with chemical weapons, […]
The battle was generally favorable for Ukraine, as it destroyed a lot of Russian combat power. But Ukraine waited too long to withdraw and failed to prepare a solid second line of defense.
Russian forces have pushed into northern Avdiivka, which now seems likely to fall. But Russia stands little chance of making major gains unless the U.S. cuts aid.
The U.S. hit three Hezbollah Brigades facilities after three U.S. soldiers were wounded, including one critically, in a drone strike at a U.S. airbase in Erbil. the handful of U.S. strikes has not deterred the militias or their Iranian masters.
Analyzing the outpouring of commentary after Fakhrizadeh’s death from Iranian politicians, military personnel, and media outlets can help shed light on Tehran’s immediate political concerns, security imperatives, as well as prospects for retaliation and escalation.
The U.S. continues to target high level Islamic State leaders in Syria despite President Trump’s claim that the group has been “defeated.” Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service said that the U.S. military killed Hajji Taysir, who oversees the “Research Department for ISIS’s chemical and biological weapons efforts in Syria.” His death has not been confirmed.
More than 500 members of American military families, including over 100 Gold Star families, have filed two lawsuits: one against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and another against eight multinational companies that operate in Afghanistan.
On Aug. 21, the US State Department Rewards for Justice Program announced rewards of up to $5 million each for information concerning three wanted Islamic State leaders. The three jihadists are “legacy” members of the group and serve as a money man, a senior ideologue, and an explosives expert.
The Turkistan Islamic Party, “Incite the Believers” operations room and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham are all battling Bashar al-Assad’s loyalists in Latakia, Syria.
Despite repeated claims to the contrary, al Qaeda has not been defeated in Afghanistan, and it still continues to operate alongside its ally, the Taliban.
The US-led coalition announced today that Abu al Umarayn and “several” other Islamic State leaders were killed in recent airstrikes in Syria. Umarayn was purportedly involved in the 2014 murder of Peter Kassig, a former US Army Ranger who was working as a humanitarian worker in Syria.
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is the name of the Taliban’s government before the US deposed it after the Sept. 11, 2001 attack by al Qaeda. The Taliban insists that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan be restored and recognized as the true representatives of the Afghan people.
Last week, French officials declared that they had conclusively identified Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) as the party behind a foiled bombing attempt in Paris in late June. A key question, however, remains unanswered: which senior Iranian official gave the order?
A Syrian militia led by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) declared on April 6 jihad against US and allied forces in Syria. The IRGC is likely to boost its military support to the group as it explores avenues to drive the US out of Syria.
In the early hours of Feb. 10, a day before the 39th anniversary of the Islamic revolution in Iran, an Iranian Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) entered Israeli airspace from Syria.
The US Treasury Department designated three jihadist facilitators who work for Sheikh Aminullah, a key al Qaeda and Taliban facilitator based in Peshawar, Pakistan. All three have allegedly facilitated Aminullah’s travels to the Gulf, where he has presumably raised funds. Two of the newly-sanctioned jihadists have been tied to operations in Afghanistan.
Iran has divulged more details about a senior officer from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Qods Force who was killed in Syria last month. The 32-year old Col Morteza Hosseinpour-Shalmani (AKA Hossein Qomi) died afteran Islamic State ambush near Jamouna, which is about 37 miles northeast of the US base of Tanf by the Iraqi border in eastern Syria. The operations commander of the Iranian-led Iraqi contingent in Syria, he was leading a unit of Seyyed al Shuhada Brigades that included Iranian-embedded soldiers.