Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters
Iraqi scientist and former government employee Suleiman al-Afari told The Washington Post that he was recruited to help manufacture chemical weapons for ISIS when they took over Mosul in 2014. Afari, a geologist at Iraq’s Ministry of Industry and Minerals, reportedly hoped he would be able to keep his job after the Islamic State toppled the government. When ISIS asked him to help produce chemical weapons, he said he accepted and managed a mustard gas production line for 15 months. “They had become the government and we now worked for them,” he said. “We wanted to work so we could get paid.” Afari also helped the terror organization find “stainless-steel tanks, pipes, valves and tubes” made to withstand heat and corrosive substances. He told the Post he was under the impression the mustard gas would only cause fear, not actually be lethal. “They didn’t force anyone,” Afari said. “I was afraid that I would lose my job. Government jobs are hard to get, and it was important to hang on to it." After his capture, Afari reportedly provided authorities with names and locations of ISIS chemical weapons manufacturers. The Post reports that he is currently on death row inside the headquarters Kurdistan Regional Government’s Counterterrorism Department.