US Brigadier General Kevin Killea, chief of staff of the combined joint task force against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, said that the Peshmerga delivered fragments from the suspicious mortar rounds to the US military within a few days of the incident.
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Islamic State is notorious for mass abuses against minority communities in Syria and neighbouring Iraq, where it rules vast amounts of territory.
U.S. officials have been looking into reports IS militants may have used mustard gas against Kurdish Peshmerga fighters this month in Makhmour, Iraq.
The mortar shell fragments undergoing tests were handed over by Kurdish forces from an attack on 11 August, Brig Gen Killea told reporters on Friday.
German Defense Ministry spokesman Boris Nannt later said he could not confirm “in what manner and form” the Kurdish fighters had experienced breathing difficulties.
The US military announcement comes two years after US President Barack Obama issued a “red line” to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over a chemical weapon attack in eastern Damascus that killed hundreds of civilians.
“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 in a statement. But questions remain about whether some of those chemicals escaped destruction or if militants have been able to obtain them in other ways.
U.S. and coalition companions are supporting Iraqi and Kurdish forces on the bottom in Iraq, largely by means of airstrikes and a practice and equip program.
He described sulphur mustard as a Class 1 chemical agent, one that is rarely used outside of chemical warfare.
“The fact that it’s being confirmed though, that they used it against Peshmerga and the U.S. has to confront it, may be a game-changer, and that may be the real problem here: The reality that ISIS is continuing to expand and adapt, and to adapt in ways that are incredibly unsafe”, Zarate said. Chlorine isn’t a banned chemical agent but its use as a weapon is prohibited under worldwide law.
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It is right not to lose sight of the violence and savagery of conventional weapons (including Isil’s famed weapon – the kitchen knife), but the accusations of chemical munitions use against Isil and the Assad regime need to be taken very seriously.
