Airstrike kills man skilled in chemical weapons, U.S. says

WASHINGTON – A U.S. bombing raid in Iraq has killed a chemical weapons expert who once worked for Saddam Hussein and had joined the Islamic State group, the military announced Friday.

Abu Malik was killed in an airstrike Jan. 24 near Mosul, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement. The statement did not give the circumstances of Malik’s death, whether he was the target of an airstrike or explain why it took nearly a week to announce that he had been killed.

Malik’s death was the first time Central Command has reported the killing of a specific individual in more than 900 airstrikes on Islamic State targets since August.

Tribune News Service