Syria Kurds say in near complete control of Hassakeh city

The Islamic State group fired chemical weapons against Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq last month, Kurdish fighters and weapons experts have said reports The Economic Times.

Redur Xelil, the YPG spokesman, said the type of chemical used had not been definitively determined.

Adding to the statement the organisations also acknowledged two attacks against Kurdish fighters from the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria’s north eastern Hasakeh province on June 28.

The Kurdish militia said the radical Islamist group fired makeshift projectiles armed with chemicals on June 28 at two of its positions in and around Hasaka. The third involved a 120mm mortar (which failed to explode) that landed near Kurdish positions at the Mosul Dam in northern Iraq.

It said 12 YPG fighters had been exposed to the gas.

On the same day, a rocket struck a home in hasakah, and emitted a dark olive green liquid with a powerful odour that caused throat and eye irritations.

Their findings claim the attacks occurred on the 21st and 22nd of June.

Chemical weapons were also used by the regime in Syria.

“It was filled with an agent of similar colour to the Tell Brak and Hasakah attacks”, says Bevan.

There have since been a number of reported attacks using chlorine. “Symptoms included nausea, vomiting, sinus problems and breathing difficulties”.

Emmanuel Deisser, managing director at Sahan Research, said: “Although these chemical attacks appear to be test cases, we expect IS construction skills to advance rapidly as they have for other IEDS (improvised explosive devices)”.

The report said that chemicals such as phosphine would be widely available in farming regions of northern Syria, and IS had experimented with different means of weaponising chemicals.

“If they deem this to be militarily effective, then we have suspicion that they will use them again”, he added.

IS has been accused of using chlorine against Kurdish forces in Iraq before. Such chemicals are no stranger to Syria, either, with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad using chlorine in bombs against rebels as the civil war rages into its fifth year.