IS Uses Mustard Gas In Iraq

Samples confirm Islamic State used mustard gas in Iraq -diplomat



Islamic State militants attacked Kurdish forces in Iraq with mustard gas last year, in the first known use of chemical weapons in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein, a diplomat said, after tests by the global chemical arms watchdog.

A source at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed that laboratory tests had come back positive for the sulphur mustard, after around 35 Kurdish troops were sickened on the battlefield last August.

The OPCW will not identify who used the chemical agent. But the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because the findings have not yet been released, said the result confirmed that chemical weapons had been used by Islamic State fighters.

The samples were taken after the soldiers became ill during fighting against Islamic State militants southwest of Erbil, capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.

The OPCW already concluded in October that mustard gas was used last year in neighbouring Syria. Islamic State has declared a "caliphate" in territory it controls in both Iraq and Syria and does not recognise the frontier.

The matter is expected to be raised at the next meeting of the OPCW's 41-member Executive Council in a month, an official said.

If Islamic State used chemical weapons, experts are still uncertain of how the group might have obtained them, or whether it could have access to more.

Another diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Syria's stockpile was a possible source of the sulphur mustard used in Iraq. That would mean Damascus had failed to fully disclose its chemical weapons programme, which was dismantled under international supervision in 2013-2014, the diplomat said.

"If Syria has indeed given up its chemical weapons to the international community, it is only the part that has been declared to the OPCW and the declaration was obviously incomplete," the diplomat told Reuters.

Syrian officials could not immediately be reached for comment but have previously denied any part of the country's former stockpile remains undestroyed.

Syria agreed to give up its chemical weapons stockpile after hundreds of people died in an attack with Sarin nerve gas in a Damascus suburb in 2013. Western countries blame that attack on the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which denies it.

Iraq's chemical arsenal, part of a "weapons of mass destruction" programme used to justify the U.S.-British invasion of 2003, proved to have been destroyed and dismantled in the Saddam era, although U.S. troops occasionally encountered old Saddam-era chemical munitions during the 2003-2011 occupation.

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a specialist in biological and chemical warfare, said Islamic State fighters may have developed their own chemical weapons capability, and could be preparing to use it again.

"I'm pretty convinced that the mustard IS are using in Iraq is made by them in Mosul," he said, referring to the main city in northern Iraq, which Islamic State fighters have occupied since 2014. "They have all the precursors at hand from the oil industry and all the experts at hand to do it."

Sulphur mustard is a Class 1 chemical agent, which means it has very few uses outside chemical warfare. Used with lethal effectiveness in World War One, it causes severe delayed burns to the eyes, skin and respiratory tract. (Reporting by Anthony Deutsch; editing by Peter Graff)

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well i mean... daesh has used insane forms of torture, assad has used cluster bombs on civilian areas, and fsa has used sarin gas against the army. really all sides are guilty of war crimes. no one is saying that people shouldn't be punished, but who is going to punish and how? pretty soon with russia's backing assad will be back in control of the country and the hundreds of millions that were spent bombing isis and attempting to facilitate a revolution will of been a waste. at that point are you going to be the one driving a tank into damascus? are we going to start a war with russia by going after assad?

i mean if we're just gonna say "checmical weapons bad", then sure. the more important thing is the terrifying level of "eh" that the world has taken in response to it. you think once assads in control of most of syria he's gonna recover all of his stockpiles? this is more like a preview of "isis in libya uses mustard gas #2017".

i feel like the spread of these weapons and the failed attempt at regime change are more important than just, "horrible people continue to do horrible things". granted it's not as quick and easy of a by-line.

think back to like pre-revolutionary war. two sides march up to each other with rifles. lined up nice and tight, then shot at each other til one gives up.

madness.

I find it strange that war would even have a set of rules...

again, are you gonna be the one to go to syria and arrest him? omar al-bashir still walks freely as the "president" of sudan. plus you think russia will let him be found guilty or even indicted? the icc requires states that are members to execute arrests. all syria has to do is reject the icc and then you are asking a country to send in a military force to arrest him. we wouldn't even do that when he was losing the civil war, let alone when he had control of the country.


you and i might as well be the ones to issue the warrant for him.

dun worry though, we got this.

I find it strange that war would even have a set of rules...

Everytime I see Mustard Gas it reminds me of one time I used some brown horseradish mustard to make a sandwich with thanksgiving leftovers... a few days before christmas...

It reminds me of FFXIV bosses who use it. I somehow doubt that Ishgard can charge the Dravanians with war crimes however.

well i mean... daesh has used insane forms of torture, assad has used cluster bombs on civilian areas, and fsa has used sarin gas against the army. really all sides are guilty of war crimes. no one is saying that people shouldn't be punished, but who is going to punish and how? pretty soon with russia's backing assad will be back in control of the country and the hundreds of millions that were spent bombing isis and attempting to facilitate a revolution will of been a waste. at that point are you going to be the one driving a tank into damascus? are we going to start a war with russia by going after assad?

i mean if we're just gonna say "checmical weapons bad", then sure. the more important thing is the terrifying level of "eh" that the world has taken in response to it. you think once assads in control of most of syria he's gonna recover all of his stockpiles? this is more like a preview of "isis in libya uses mustard gas #2017".

i feel like the spread of these weapons and the failed attempt at regime change are more important than just, "horrible people continue to do horrible things". granted it's not as quick and easy of a by-line.

PFf *** tards u ruined the arab world after all not only you made the youth Rage and Disbelieve of liberalism a prime example of hatred you bestowed.



This is what you Brought and this is what you made after.

The middle east was peaceful During the war on IRAN and AFTERWARDS until the Death of saddam. After the Death of saddam the middle east fell apart REALLY FAST and there was a *** L WAR IN IRAQ. You don't even know what was the purpose of Saddam's War in IraN i hope you research and i find out if you think it was mostly about Kuwait your *** wrong oh wait no one would consider a middle eastern perspective a reason maybe thats why the likes of you will stay arrogant .


Never again i will believe in American Propaganda like what we were fed with during the War on IRAQ I hope Isis Ruins The Iraq government = Iranian/American and fight each other off American influence i believe 50% of the Isis (*** up people too) Soldiers are youngsters that were Traumatized by The American Government in Believing in the American / Cause / Dream But hopefully When they realize its just
manipulation for A greater cause they will stop all of this *** up actions.

Lol.. Even me a middle eastren Would condemn Daesh/isis with all what they have done but All above is false i have nothing to say more.. What about the American Army Torture Among the Iraqi citizens and Palestinian citizens in Palestine? by the so well called Isreal oh sorry i men isfake.

I don't know what you mean, we are killing at least one prominent ISIS leader per month. They are dropping like flies.

First, I just wanna put things in perspective.

'Murica!

He is just saying that USA has to look into her own problems before playing the police of the world. It has nothing to do with people dying to cancer to be compared to terrorism. They are so eager to see governments they don't like overthrown but they don't seem to be as eager to solve things like health insurance and civil arming.

Look, I certainly don't shy away when there's something to criticize in the US

Doesn't matter. Those are points of contention from political point of view, none of it should go in the same sentence as fighting an organized terrorist group.