Iraqi, US officials: IS working to produce chemical weapons

An Iraqi politician, citing intelligence reports, told the AP that ISIS has recruited chemical experts Chechnya, Southeast Asia and Iraq, including some who once worked for Saddam Hussein.

“We must not rule anything out”, he said.

ISIS trackers say its current arsenal includes weapons that are easily scavenged: mustard gas in Syria, which stockpiled hundreds of tons before agreeing to dispose of it two years ago, and chlorine that could be obtained from any water treatment facility in territory it has seized.

But does ISIS have the ability to develop weapons that would pose a threat to the West going forward?

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.

US intelligence, however, remains sceptical about ISIS’s capabilities to produce lethal chemical or biological weapons, according to RT.

VX nerve gas is among the most feared and deadly chemical agents terrorists could employ, which could cause mass casualties in urban areas.

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.

IS recently moved its research labs, experts and materials from Iraq to “secured locations” inside Syria, al-Zamili added – apparently out of concern of an eventual assault on Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, captured by IS in the summer of 2014.

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

Thomas Lynch, a former special assistant to the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said France, Belgium and other European nations must also devote greater resources to their counter-terrorism and intelligence services.

The issue brief outlines options the anti-ISIS coalition can use to defeat ISIS by increasing support to local partners in the fight, increasing coalition resources and airstrikes, improving intelligence cooperation with allies, continuing diplomatic efforts to wind down Syria’s civil war, and degrading ISIS sanctuaries and networks outside of Iraq and Syria through law enforcement, military, and diplomatic means. Chemical weapons are not hard to produce.

The author, Sameer Al Khalifawy, claimed there had been “significant progress”. “This is a wake-up call to make sure our defences are in order”.