Washington: The recent killing of a Daesh leader in Syria and the capture of another by American forces in Iraq mark the first steps forward in a long-discussed shift to defeat the extremist group: The targeting of specific terrorist leaders instead of exclusively striking assets and training local troops.

On Wednesday, Iraqi security officials identified a recently detained Daesh leader as Sulaiman Daoud Al Afari, who was captured by the US Army’s Delta Force in northern Iraq several weeks ago. He is currently being held in a temporary US detention facility in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil and will eventually be turned over to Iraqi or Kurdish authorities.

Al Afari is a chemical weapons expert who once worked for Saddam Hussain’s regime. It is not known if he ran Daesh’s chemical warfare programme.

Daesh has attacked Kurdish forces with chemical weapons repeatedly in recent months, according to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

Last month, Clapper told a congressional panel that the Daesh has “used toxic chemicals in Iraq and Syria, including the blister agent sulfur mustard.”

He said it was the first time a terrorist group had used-chemical weapons in an attack since the extremist Aum Shinrikyo group used sarin in the Tokyo subway system in 1995. Syrian President Bashar Al Assad also-has-been accused of unleashing sarin against his people, including a deadly 2013 attack that brought a reluctant White House to the brink of launching massive air strikes against the regime.

Kurdish forces repeatedly have asked Washington for gas masks as protection from chemical-laced artillery shells fired at their troops. Several thousand have arrived.

It is unknown how long Al Afari will be held by US forces. But broadly, Pentagon officials hope to glean intelligence from detainees to use in planning raids against Daesh’s secretive leadership structure. That is the same model once used by the Joint Special Operations Command in Iraq and Afghanistan, which tore through Al Qaida’s leadership hierarchy in a wave of night raids that scooped up high-level detainees.

The Delta Force team that captured Al Afari is part of an “expeditionary targeting force” of about 200 troops sent to Iraq late last year, tasked specifically with killing or capturing Daesh leaders.

On Capitol Hill, Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of US Special Operations Command, told a Senate panel that he has “concerns about our broader strategy against Daesh” — but stopped short of recommending any changes to the current plan.

Votel’s comments came during his testimony Wednesday in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is considering his nomination to head US Central Command. A day earlier, he told the same panel that the Pentagon has no real plan for holding terrorism suspects beyond the near future — even though there “is a requirement for long-term detention.”

As the incoming leader for the wars in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, Votel will be in position to develop a long-term detention plan — despite years of White House reluctance.

Targeting terror

On Tuesday, the Pentagon confirmed a March 4 strike in Syria killed Abu Omar Al Shishani — also known as Omar the Chechen. Al Shishani had been a major figure in Daesh’s military command and was often described as the group’s “minister of war”.

Al Shishani is believed to have died along with about 12 other militants in a series of US air strikes near the town of Shadadi, which was recently retaken by US-backed Kurdish and Arab forces. Daesh reportedly sent him to Shadadi to help stem battlefield losses and bolster fighters’ morale.

The killing of Al Shishani “is huge,” said New America Foundation research fellow Barak Barfi, who has interviewed numerous Daesh defectors. “He has been made the public face of Daesh’s foreign fighters, and the foreign fighters really identified with him.”

While a respected military leader — as a one-time member of the Georgian army, he reportedly received some training from US Special Forces — Al Shishani also displayed another trait so important to groups like Daesh: He had charisma and a connection with his troops, Barfi said, adding: “That’s an intangible that can’t be replaced.”