Islamic State Aggresively Pursuing Chemical Weapons

“We know they are pursuing chemical weapons, but we haven’t seen anything beyond mustard and chlorine”, Martin told NBC News.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls issued the latest warning Thursday, following the terror attacks on Paris that left at least 129 people dead.

While the U.S.-led coalition continues to fight the terrorists and Kurdish Peshmerga forces have recently reclaimed Sinjar, it seems the extremists have only become stronger as Iraqi and USA intelligence officials confirmed that the most-gated terror group of this day is “aggressively pursuing the development of chemical weapons”.

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isil) terrorists may try to attack Western targets with chemical or biological weapons, France warned yesterday, as diplomatic attempts intensified to build a united military front against the jihadist group.

The fear of the group’s opponents is that by using the group’s own terminology – that is, Islamic State – it will admit that the states of Iraq and Syria failed to offer their citizens protection.

“They now have complete freedom to select locations for their labs and production sites and have a wide range of experts, both civilians and military, to aid them”, said the official”. As French President Hollande noted, using “ISIS” or any other variant combining the terms “Islamic” and “State” accords the murderous gang an imprimatur of political legitimacy that is neither realistic nor deserved, particularly in light of the brutality with which they interact with anyone who does not share their insanely narrow, extremist views.

Iraq’s military also recently received from Russian Federation 1,000 protective suits against chemical attacks, said Hakim al-Zamili, head of the Iraqi parliament’s security and defense committee. “That would threaten not just Iraq but the whole world”, al-Zamili stated.

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.

“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 told the AP.

However, he said Islamic State has greater financial resources, adding that intelligence agencies have long underestimated IS’ capabilities.

Developing chemical weapons has been an ambition of the group – and various other jihadi movements – for years.

Killea also tried to downplay concerns about whether USA forces in the region were prepared for the use of chemical weapons by Islamic State. Some of those working on the team once worked for Saddam Hussein’s former Military Industrialization Authority.

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

Dilanian reported from Washington.