By Al-Fassel | 2023-12-19

The US State Department's Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program is offering up to $5 million for information leading to the identification or location of Abu Ali al-Tunisi, a key leader of the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS).

Al-Tunisi is "the leader of manufacturing" for ISIS in Iraq, and has conducted training for ISIS members, including instructions on how to make explosives, suicide vests and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Al-Tunisi, who has injuries to the right hand and right eye, also provided advanced training on weapon development and the manufacturing of chemical weapons, according to RFJ.

Any information that could lead to his whereabouts should be relayed to RFJ through its WhatsApp number +1-202-294-1037, or its Telegram channel.

The search for al-Tunisi is happening in conjunction with continuous international efforts to crack down on the use of banned toxic weapons worldwide, most notably in Syria.

ISIS's chemical ambitions

In 2014, as ISIS ravaged parts of Syria and Iraq, the group started manufacturing multiple types of chemical and biological agents to be used in military campaigns as well as terror attacks against Western targets, the Washington Post reported in July 2022.

To do the job, ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had hired chemical weapon expert Salih al-Sabawi, a Russian-trained engineer who had once helped Iraqi President Saddam Hussein build his extensive arsenal of chemical weapons.

ISIS used chemical weapons, including chlorine and sulfur mustard agents, at least 52 times in Syria and Iraq between 2014 and 2016, according to an independent analysis by the IHS Conflict Monitor, a London-based intelligence collection and analysis service.

More than one-third of the attacks targeted Kurdish and Iraqi forces in and around Mosul, ISIS's former stronghold in northern Iraq.

"The worst episode, near Taza Khurmatu, a Kurdish town south of Kirkuk, wounded between 600 and 1,000 people in March 2016. At least three victims later died," retired Brig. Gen. Hajar Ismail, an adviser to the Kurdish regional government who participated in the investigations, told the Washington Post.

While al-Sabawi was killed in a US strike in January 2015 and all of ISIS's known chemical weapon facilities were destroyed less than two years later, the group's ambitions for chemical and biological weapons may still be present, officials said.

Widespread phenomenon

Earlier this year, senior officials with the United Nations (UN) Investigative Team promoting accountability for ISIS crimes (UNITAD) presented some of their findings about ISIS's development and use of chemical and biological weapons.

ISIS's operations represent the culmination of nearly two decades of experimentation by Sunni extremist groups, marking "the most sophisticated program developed by non-state actors so far," team leader Paula Silfverstolpe said in June.

ISIS payroll records showed that more than 1,000 combatants were involved in production, UNITAD said.

"Hundreds were deployed to the chemical weapons program, and specific job advertisements were placed to recruit scientists and technical experts, including from abroad," it said.

Silfverstolpe said "the militants developed at least eight chemical agents -- aluminium phosphide, botulinum toxin, chlorine, cyanide ion, nicotine, ricin, thallium sulfate and sulfur mustard, which is also known as mustard gas."

"Sulfur mustard, chlorine and aluminium phosphide are banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention, and evidence demonstrates that ISIS weaponized their use in mortars, rockets" and IEDs, UNITAD said.

Al-Baghdadi personally ordered the attack against Taza Khurmatu "with the purpose of causing as many casualties as possible," it said.

"Of the 42 projectiles launched against the town, at least 27 contained sulfur mustard, which causes blisters and painful burns."

"The impact caused by the chemical attack includes various diseases such as cancer, skin diseases, miscarriages, deformities in embryos, chronic diseases and psychological impact and trauma," said Judge Ali Noaman Jabbar of the Taza Investigation Court.

The attack on Taza Khurmatu "was definitely not an isolated case," Silfverstolpe said. At least 12 other attacks were conducted in other locations, with unconfirmed reports of 35 more.

"It was quite a widespread and systematic phenomenon," she said.

Syria's chemical stockpile

"Mosul was at the center of [ISIS's] chemical weapons production," said Columb Strack, a senior analyst and the director of the IHS Conflict Monitor.

"But most of the equipment and experts were probably evacuated to Syria in the weeks and months leading up to the Mosul offensive [in 2017], along with convoys of other senior members and their families."

ISIS carried out three chemical weapon attacks using sulfur mustard in Syria, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in 2018.

But ISIS is not the only actor in Syria to carry out such attacks, with the Syrian government responsible for the majority of 85 confirmed chemical attacks between August 21, 2013, and February 25, 2018, HRW said.

It was unclear how ISIS had obtained sulfur mustard, but both the former Hussein government in Iraq and the current government in Syria at one point possessed chemical warfare programs, the New York Times reported in 2016.

Last month, the world's chemical weapon watchdog voted to curb chemical exports to Syria, accusing Damascus of violating its toxic arms control treaty, AFP reported.

A majority of countries at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)'s annual meeting on November 30 voted for "collective measures" to stop the transfer of certain chemicals and chemical-making technology to Syria.

These measures include beefing up export controls and preventing "the direct or indirect supply, sale, or transfer of chemical precursors and dual-use chemical manufacturing facilities and equipment and related technology."

The resolution cited Syria's "continued possession and use of chemical weapons" and "its failures to submit an accurate and complete declaration and to destroy all its undeclared chemical weapons and production facilities."

Syria agreed in 2013 to join OPCW, shortly after an alleged chemical gas attack killed more than 1,400 people near Damascus.

But the global watchdog, based in The Hague, has since accused President Bashar al-Assad's regime of continuing to attack civilians with chemical weapons.

Syria's OPCW voting rights were suspended in 2021, an unprecedented rebuke, following poison gas attacks on civilians in 2017.

Damascus has denied the allegations.

Also on November 30, a dozen Syrian rights groups and international legal experts announced from The Hague an initiative to create a new tribunal that could put on trial alleged users of banned toxic agents worldwide, Reuters reported.

Iran's support for Syria

Meanwhile, Iran, which has backed the al-Assad regime since the start of the Syrian war, has been eyeing Syria's extensive network of military industry facilities, Israel's Alma Research and Education Center said in August.

Syria's Scientific Studies and Research Center (CERS), which employs some 20,000 Syrian researchers, engineers and military officers, produces advanced weapons such as the "Fateh-110" surface-to-surface missile.

"The Fateh-110 is at the heart of the joint Iranian-Syrian and Hizbullah precision-missile project," the report said.

The CERS is also responsible for "developing and manufacturing chemical, biological and potentially nuclear weapons," it said.

The report warned that Hizbullah may take possession of chemical substances stored at CERS by the al-Assad regime, and use them to produce chemical weapons.

The research center is making efforts to develop and manufacture weapons on Syrian soil, based on Iranian technology, according to the report.

This will provide the Iranian regime with an opportunity to "bypass the logistics and risks involved in transferring some of its weapons into Syria from Iran by land, air, or sea," it said.

"The Syrian regime now possesses extensive chemical capabilities," the report said. "At will, this capability may benefit the radical Shia axis led by Iran in general and Hizbullah in particular."