Coalition kills Islamic State ‘chemical weapons engineer’

US Central Command, or CENTCOM, reported yesterday that it killed Abu Malik, an Islamic State “chemical weapons engineer,” in an airstrike near Mosul, Iraq. Abu Malik was associated with al Qaeda in Iraq and then the Islamic State for a decade before he was killed.

“Malik was an ISIL (Islamic State) chemical weapons engineer who worked at Saddam Hussein’s Muthana chemical weapon production facility before affiliating with al Qaeda in Iraq in 2005,” according to the CENTCOM press release. “He later joined ISIL and his past training and experience provided the terrorist group with expertise to pursue a chemical weapons capability.”

“His death is expected to temporarily degrade and disrupt the terrorist network and diminish ISIL’s ability to potentially produce and use chemical weapons against innocent people,” CENTCOM concluded.

It is unclear if Abu Malik was associated with the al Qaeda in Iraq cell that the Iraqi Ministry of Defense broke up in 2013 (al Qaeda in Iraq was eventually rebranded as the Islamic State). That cell was seeking to manufacture chemical weapons, including sarin nerve gas, and plotting to conduct attacks within Iraq, Europe, and North America, according to the Iraqi government.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

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4 Comments

  • mike merlo says:

    why would CENTCOM even bother to bring up Malik’s ‘bonafide’s?’ So what! Whoopdeedoo, so some scum bag blown up on the battlefield is supposedly a Chemical Engineer. Over the last few years this ‘Toteming’ of supposedly ‘high profile’ terminated adversaries has degenerated into just another “so what!” Under the present US Administration the threat from Islamic extremist’s has expanded exponentially & I as a ‘private citizen’ am somehow meant to be ‘soothed,’ placated, reassured etc., that my tax dollars are being put to meaningful use? What a joke. The other day I read some comment from someone from the DOD ‘poo-pawing’ “Body Count” as if its some kind of a metric not worthy of noting yet here I read CENTCOM ‘feeling’ the need to publicize what obviously from their vantage point is a ‘Trophy Kill!’ Gimme a break. The most consequential ‘Chemical Attack’ I’ve read to date since the present Administration assumed control is a ‘spittle’ of chlorine used on a few occasions, heck I can go into just any kitchen or garage in the US & mix up a brew that’ll take out a city block or 2. The Pentagon, White House, State Dept, Intelligence Community, etc., have degenerated into a collection of political hacks & pension seekers. Beyond pathetic

  • Dan says:

    Kind of off-topic; but why do DoS/DoD continue to refer to the Islamic State (IS) as ISIL/ISIS?
    Is it a reluctance by the Administration to credit IS as an Islamic State, or is it just more easily recognised by the public?

  • Eliava says:

    Thank you for publishing this report. Our group tracks, with great interest, adversaries with specialized education or experience such as Abu Malik.

  • scott malense says:

    This is good news.
    btw, re chemical weapons attacks, the reports tend to fly under the radar, but recently the NYT reported that almost 1 in 10 US wounded in Iraq from 03-11 were from chemical weapons.
    Gotta remember there was a huge chem weapons attack thwarted in Jordan shortly after the US invasion.
    The list goes on and on, but many still did happen and could happen. Stopping them is always a good thing.
    Or….was the ISIS chem guy just making meth?

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