IS suspected of using banned chemical weapon in Iraq

Foreign-policy failures have a way of compounding, and that’s what seems to have happened as U.S. officials said Thursday they believe that Islamic State militants used mustard gas this week against Kurdish forces in Iraq.

The Syrian government admitted to having large quantities of mustard agent in 2013, when it agreed to give up its chemical weapons arsenal, according to the newspaper.

“Last Tuesday afternoon, peshmerga forces in the Makhmur area 50km west of the city of Arbil were attacked with Katyusha rockets filled with chlorine”, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein also used weapons such as mustard agent against the Kurds and against Iran. “This is further evidence of that”. It is these weapons that could fall into ISIS hands.

A spokesman for the ministry said: “We have indications that there was an attack with chemical weapons”.

This is not the first time that the Takfiri group resorts to using toxic chemical arms in Iraq.

“Mustard isn’t VX or sarin”, the senior U.S. military official said.

Intelligence officials and chemical-weapons experts have expressed concerns in recent months that some of those banned chemicals could fall into the hands of Islamic State or other extremist groups.

“German soldiers were not affected or in danger” during the reported attack, the spokesman said.

Peshmerga forces have been instructed to use gas masks during future mortar attacks, he added. She said anyone responsible should be held accountable. Similar reports had surfaced in July.

It is unclear how ISIS may have obtained the undetermined chemical agent.

U.S. officials are concerned that if the weapons were, in fact, sourced from remnants of Assad’s state production facilities in Syria, ISIS may very soon have access to even more banned chemical agents.