The U.S. military is running tests to determine if a chemical agent was used by Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) in a September 20 rocket attack near an Iraqi base used by U.S. troops.
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Iraq’s military backed by air strikes from a USA -led coalition on Thursday seized the center of Shirqat, a northern town in Salahuddin province seen as a stepping stone in the campaign to recapture Mosul from ISIS.
The statement from the Joint Military Operation Command said the Iraqi flag was hoisted on Thursday morning over the mayor’s office and the main hospital complex in the town of Shirqat.
The government forces launched the Shirqat operation on Tuesday.
The initial test for the suspicious, tar-like black oily substance found was positive for a “mustard agent”.
A rocket fired by Islamic State militants at U.S. forces in Iraq may have carried a chemical agent, a USA defense official said Wednesday.
The spokesman for the US-led coalition against ISIL, Col John Dorrian, said that the coalition carried out “a very successful strike that eliminated a significant number of fighters who were trying to flee toward Hawija”, to the east of Shirqat, which is under ISIL control.
Shirqat, on the Tigris river 100 km (60 miles) south of Mosul, has been surrounded by Iraqi troops and Iranian-backed Shi’ite Muslim militias allied to the government but the militias so far have not participated in the operation.
Iraq announced in March that it had launched the offensive to retake the city, and the top U.S. envoy to the coalition, Brett McGurk, has said several times that the Mosul operation was already under way.
Iraqi forces have managed to drive Isis militants from a strategically important town near Mosul in the north of the country.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has vowed the army will retake the city from the extremists before the end of the year.
[SeeLWJ report, Iraqi forces retake Q-West airbase south of Mosul.] The Islamic State has launched mortar and rocket attacks against U.S. forces based at Q-West, and is thought to have recently fired “a shell with mustard agent”, according to CNN.
Last month, Iraqi forces retook the town of Qayyara, 70km south of Mosul.
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The Mosul operation also poses major humanitarian challenges, with the United Nations saying that up to one million people may be displaced by the fighting.
