Analysis of mortars fired by the Islamic State group at Kurdish forces in Iraq have shown traces of containing the sulfur mustard chemical agent, a senior U.S. military official told reporters Friday.
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US officials have been looking into reports that IS used chemical weapon mustard gas in an attack earlier this month in the town of Makhmour. Gen. Kevin J. Killea, chief of staff for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve.
A field test on the debris “showed the presence of… what is known as sulfur mustard”.
He emphasized that the field test is not conclusive.
Kurdish forces had given mortar fragments to U.S. forces after an attack August. 11 in the village of Makhmur, northern Iraq, raising questions about whether the remains had been contaminated by Kurdish fighters. “Until we do other tests, we won’t be able to have a firm decision on exactly what happened there”, Killea said.
“It is very important to understand here that that is a presumptive field test and it is not conclusive, and what those results tell us is merely the presence of that chemical”, Killea said.
“From a coalition perspective, we really don’t need another reason to hunt down ISIL and kill them wherever we can and whenever we can”, he said, using the Pentagon’s acronym for the terrorist group.
U.S. officers have expressed persistent considerations concerning the risk that IS would find and use chemical weapons in its ongoing marketing campaign to take management of extra territory throughout Iraq and Syria.
He described sulphur mustard as a Class 1 chemical agent, one that is rarely used outside of chemical warfare.
Immediately after the attack, the German Ministry of Defence reported there was a “possible chemical weapons attack on the Kurdish frontlines at sector six”.
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“We continue to monitor these reports closely, and would further stress that any use of chemicals or biological material as a weapon is completely inconsistent with worldwide standards and norms regarding such capabilities”, Baskey said.
