The rocket fell on Tuesday in an unpopulated area near the Qayyara West base, where hundreds of USA forces are working to prepare an airfield ahead of Iraq’s offensive to retake the city of Mosul from the radical group Islamic State, said a U.S. military official, who spoke with Pentagon reporters on condition of anonymity.
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Shirqat is important for Iraqi troops to secure the supply lines to forces stationed in nearby town of Qayara ahead of Mosul operation. The black tar like substance will be sent to a laboratory for more extensive testing.
“We assess it to be a sulfur-mustard blister agent”, Dunford said, adding that no one was injured by it.
He called the incident a “concerning development”. The base is a staging area for Iraqi forces preparing for an assault on Mosul, the city that has been the Islamic State’s main stronghold in Iraq since 2014. Initial tests showed it contained a residue of mustard gas, while a second test came up negative.
The official added that the rocket landed within 100 yards of the “security perimeter of the base”, but did not say how close it got to USA troops.
U.S. troops involved in the incident went through decontamination showers as a precaution.
The U.S. envoy to the anti-ISIS coalition also said there would be “no tolerance” for sectarian torture and other abuses resulting from the planned offensive to recapture Mosul.
Mustard agent in sufficient quantities and concentration can maim or kill by damaging skin, eyes and airways. “We’re very anxious that we won’t be able to prepare in time” for the Mosul battle, she said in a statement.
United States authorities said they “had expected” that ISIS might use chemical weapons.
Earlier in 2016, ISIS has been accused of using mustard gas against Syrian regime forces in battles for eastern city of Deir ez-Zor.
“The people of Iraq have suffered greatly at the hands of Daesh and in efforts to liberate them from this brutality we should not let them go through further undue misery”.
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If the substance is confirmed to be a mustard agent, it would mark the first occurrence of chemical weapons being used against coalition forces in Iraq.
