Officials told the Wall Street Journal that the chemical could have been procured in Syria, whose government admitted to possessing large quantities when it claimed to have given up its entire arsenal of chemical weapons to worldwide monitors in 2013.
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Now U.S. officials are focused on figuring out exactly what happened in the attack, and if mustard gas was used, how the terrorist group obtained it. The agent was developed during World War I and was banned by treaty in 1993.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commanding officer of the British army’s chemical-weapons unit, said the use of mustard agent by Islamic State could give a boost to the group’s “psychological warfare campaign”. “This is further evidence of that”.
Peshmerga fighters told AFP Thursday that they had been the target of a chemical attack on Tuesday. German soldiers are stationed near Erbil to train Kurdish soldiers to fight IS.
The German Defense Ministry, which has a training mission in the Kurdish region, said it received the report of the incident but has not looked into its veracity.
The White House’s National Security Council said it was aware of the reports and was seeking more information.
It is unclear how much mustard agent Islamic State might have obtained.
“Mustard isn’t VX or sarin”, the senior U.S. military official said. But there have been numerous reports of chemical weapons use in Syria since then – especially chlorine-filled barrel bombs. They are either approved or deleted.
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