ISIS prepping for use of chemical weapons

Islamic State is aggressively pursuing development of chemical weapons, intelligence officials said.

U.S. intelligence officials, however, told AP they do not believe Isis is capable of creating more developed weapons such as nerve gas, most suited for terrorist attacks on civilian targets.

Iraqi officials have raised concerns that a large area controlled by extremists, since the group overran parts of Iraq and Syria a year ago, has left authorities largely in the dark about Isis activities. French President Francois Hollande referred to Daesh in his statements swearing vengeance for the appalling carnage the ISIS “death cult” inflicted in the City of Lights, and US Secretary of State John Kerry has also used the name in his public statements.

Despite this, Iraq’s military distributed gas masks to troops deployed west and north of Baghdad over the Summer, amidst fears Isis may expand their weapons use, a general told AP. The foreigners include experts from Chechnya and Southeast Asia.

IS has set up a branch tasked with pursuing chemical weapons, according to a senior Iraqi military intelligence officer and two officials from another Iraqi intelligence agency.

“In circumstances like this, a lot of people lose their heads and call for the most draconian actions”, said Daniel Benjamin, a former State Department counter-terrorism coordinator in the Clinton and Obama administrations.

They did not reveal further details, including the number of individuals working there, or the team’s budget. Residents in Mosul, Iraq, which fell to the group last June, told the Associated Press militants threatened to remove the tongue of anyone speaking that name.

Retired Lt. Gen. Richard Zahner, a top American military intelligence officer in Iraq in 2005 and 2006, said the United States has, in the past, underestimated ISIS and that the threat of their obtaining the deadly weaponry is quite legitimate.

New information suggests that ISIS is looking to ramp up its chemical and biological weapon capabilities. Given that and its inheritance of Saddam-era experts, he said, it could realistically reach a “limited” program for battlefield uses.

In a very real sense, then, using terms like “Islamic State” or the acronyms ISIS or IS unwittingly helps the group to sell its message; it is not a state in any rational sense of the term, but by relying on the familiar terms to describe the group, we are helping to turn it into one.

“We are also aware that they have been looking at anthrax and ricin, which are biological toxics to potentially use”.

“Even a few competent scientists and engineers, given the right motivation and a few material resources, can produce hazardous industrial and weapons-specific chemicals in limited quantities”, he said.

The agent is colourless, but when used in impure form they give the appearance of a yellow-brown colour – hence the “mustard gas” name.