Daesh after developing chemical weapons

“We know that there could also be a risk of chemical or biological weapons” in future strikes, he added.

Addressing to the French parliament after the recent deadly Paris attacks which killed more than 100, Prime Minister Manuel Valls acknowledged the report, warning that at some point Islamic extremists might use such weapons against France.

The Associated Press reported Thursday that Iraqi and American intelligence officials believe ISIS is hell-bent on ramping up a chemical weapons program with help of scientists in the territory that forms its so-called caliphate.

USA officials, while concerned about Islamic States aggressive pursuit of lethal weapons, have been more cautious about its actual capabilities.

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. The OPCW is continuing to investigate other suspected uses of chemical weapons by ISIS. A senior officer in Salahuddin province, north of Baghdad, said 25 percent of the troops deployed there are equipped with masks.

Meanwhile, Hakim al-Zamili, the head of the Iraqi parliament’s security and defense committee, noted that the country’s military received from Russian Federation 1,000 protective suits against chemical attacks.

“ISIS is working very seriously to reach production of chemical weapons, particularly nerve gas”.

“Daesh” is an acronym for the Arabic phrase al-Dawla al-Islamiya al-Iraq al-Sham – “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant”.

So far, ISIS’ use of chemical weapons has been limited to less sophisticated gases on the battlefield – employing mustard gas against Iraqi Kurdish fighters in Syria earlier this year and firing mortars at Kurdish troops that contained the chemical agent mustard sulfur.

On the other hand, USA intelligence officers clarified that with the lack of highly technological equipment inside ISIS labs and posts, it would be incapable of producing more advanced weapons such as nerve gas.

“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”, said Zahner, according to the AP.

And now they’ve reportedly set up shop to work on one of the worst kinds of weapons of mass of destruction.

Politicians are increasingly using the D-word for two simple reasons: to strip the group of its credibility and to steer away from the Islam-versus-the-West dynamic it apparently craves.

They said they same thing about Iraq, they said the same thing about Qaddafi in Libya. Syria had supposedly surrendered the chemical 18 months ago, and the confirmation that mustard gas was used in August raises several questions.