ISIS used mustard gas to attack Kurdish forces in Iraq last year

A source at the global chemical arms watchdog has confirmed that the Islamic State used mustard gas to attack Kurdish forces in Iraq, in the first known use of chemical weapons in the country since the removal of Saddam Hussein.

Lab tests had come back positive for the sulphur mustard after around 35 Kurdish troops were poisoned on the battlefield southwest of Erbil last August, a source at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said.

The results allegedly confirmed that mustard gas was used by ISIS fighters against the Kurds.

Last September, Germany’s foreign intelligence BND was the first to report a possible of use of chemical weapons by the extremist group.

BND chief Gerhard Schindler said the agency has ‘information that ISIS used mustard gas in northern Iraq’. The spies collected blood samples from Kurds who were injured in clashes with Daesh.

Schindler speculated that the mustard gas either came from old Iraqi stockpiles produced under Saddam Hussein’s rule or was manufactured by ISIS after it took over Mosul University.

However, another diplomat said Syria’s stockpile was a possible source of the sulphur mustard used in Iraq.

Source: Daily Mail