Test of Islamic State mortar fragments shows chemical arms traces: US general

A senior US military officer says preliminary tests show traces of the chemical agent sulfur mustard on mortars that Islamic State militants used to attack Kurdish forces in Iraq.

Killea stressed that the U.S.is already doing everything it can to find and kill Islamic State terrorists regardless of the group’s use of chemical weapons.

CBS added that there may be some questions about the “chain of custody” of the fragments, since they were in the hands of Kurdish Peshmerga forces before the US military was able to test them.

After an August 11 attack that reportedly sickened dozens of Kurdish troops, the Kurds provided U.S. officials with fragments of shells that later tested positive for the presence of “HD, or what is known as sulfur mustard”, said Marine Corps Brig. But it is yet another sign that ISIS is in possession of mustard agent and is using it in battle.

“That is a presumptive field test and it is not conclusive, and what those results tell us is merely the presence of that chemical”.

“So it is gonna take us a couple of weeks to do the full testing on those fragments to figure out what was contained in or on those mortar rounds, before we make a determination on exactly what it was, potentially how much it was and maybe even where it came from”. “It doesn’t tell us anything more than that”, Killea said. “However, it’s important that any indication of the use of a chemical warfare agent purely from our perspective reinforces the perspective that this is an abhorrent group that will kill indiscriminately without any moral or legal code”.

Islamic State is a violent extremist group that has seized large areas in Iraq and Syria, establishing a caliphate on territories under their control.

In an interview with Press TV, former Central Intelligence Agency contractor Steven Kelley said the US military campaign against the Daesh terrorist group is a “cynical” effort to defeat the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Immediately after the attack, the German Ministry of Defence reported there was a “possible chemical weapons attack on the Kurdish frontlines at sector six”.