“The forerunner of ISIS was establishing a lab to produce toxins in northern Iraq”
When was this supposed to have occurred and who exactly is the forerunner of ISIS?
The forerunner of ISIS was Zarqawi’s group al Tawhid al Jihad [also known as al Tauhid and IIRC, Bayat al Imam] and Mullah Krekar’s group Ansar al Islam. Zarqawi had a training camp in Afghanistan adjacent to OBL’s and his group operated frequently in Jordan as well as Germany and was known for the Millennium plot to bomb a Jordanian hotel frequented by Americans. Krekar’s group operated in northern Iraq and Syria, had some Baathists in its ranks, and had cells in Europe, Krekar himself perched safely in Oslo. Ansar’s group took in Zarqawi’s and Zarqawi eventually ran the merged group, which drew heavily from Europe for recruits which they brought into Iraq via Syria. They adopted at various times other names - al Qaeda in Iraq, Jund al Sham, and Islamic State, etc, before getting to ISIS. After Saddam Hussein was executed Zarqawi finally swore the oath to bin Laden but Zarqawi was killed along the way and others took the lead. They have links both to Hizbollah and alQaeda in spite of the religious differences.