Syria had supposedly surrendered the chemical 18 months ago, and the confirmation that mustard gas was used in August raises several questions.
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The terrorist group’s arsenal of chemical weapons also reportedly includes chloride, which could have been acquired from water treatment facilities in areas the group has seized, NBC News reported.
Developing chemical weapons has been an ambition of the group – and various other jihadi movements – for years.
“The regime uses chemical warfare on a regular basis these days, and nobody bats an eye – yet when IS captures it from them and uses it against them it’s all of a sudden a huge problem?”
“The pre-deployment training that everybody goes through prepares them for the the worst-case instances that you might imagine for chem [chemical], bio [biological], radiological events, he told Pentagon reporters”.
While the U.S.-led coalition continues to fight the terrorists and Kurdish Peshmerga forces have recently reclaimed Sinjar, it seems the extremists have only become stronger as Iraqi and USA intelligence officials confirmed that the most-gated terror group of this day is “aggressively pursuing the development of chemical weapons”.
The team was able to confirm with the utmost confidence that at least two people were exposed to sulfur mustard, the report said.
The threat was revealed yesterday by France’s prime minister Manuel Valls.
American officials said that most, though not all, of the five identified attackers involved in last Friday’s atrocities, were on a U.S. no-fly list.
Islamic State has a branch devoted to creating chemical weapons, AP reports, citing Iraqi and USA officials. Even with the mustard gas, Patrick Martin, an Iraq expert with the Institute for the Study of War, a military research think tank in Washington, told NBC News that the damage has been limited because the chemical was only added to warheads and mortars.
Experts have questioned whether they would have the logistical capabilities to deploy chemical agents outside the Middle East. “Their delivery systems aren’t that sophisticated”.
“Mosul [seized by ISIS in June] has a university and that theoretically has the lab facilities to deal with this”. There are also concerns about militants trying to obtain radioactive materials.
“Even a few competent scientists and engineers, given the right motivation and a few material resources, can produce hazardous industrial and weapons-specific chemicals in limited quantities”, said Zahner. In January, U.S. Central Command announced that an airstrike had killed Abu Mailk, a chemical expert who had worked under Saddah Hussein.
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A man, wounded in what the government said was a chemical weapons attack, is treated at a hospital in the Syrian city of Aleppo on March 19, 2013.
