Isis is “aggressively pursuing the development of chemical weapons”, creating a team dedicated to research and experiments, according to Iraqi and US intelligence officials. Iraqi officials have raised concerns that a large area controlled by extremists, since the group overran parts of Iraq and Syria last year, has left authorities largely in the dark about Isis activities. A senior Iraqi intelligence officer, with first-hand knowledge of Isis' chemical weapons programme, told The Associated Press anonymously: "They now have complete freedom to select locations for their labs and production sites and have a wide range of experts, both civilians and military, to aid them."
Syrian pro-government forces inspect weapons reportedly left by Islamic State (IS) group fighters
It also believed the group are working in conjunction with scientists in Iraq and Syria to create more sophisticated weapons. US intelligence officials, however, told AP they do not believe Isis is capable of creating more developed weapons such as nerve gas, most suited for terrorist attacks on civilian targets. So far the group are only known to have used mustard gas during violence in Iraq and Syria, which is usually not lethal, with most victims recovering from their symptoms in several weeks, according to Live Science.
A European official with knowledge of the militant group added that, at present, even Isis’s production of mustard gas was in small quantities and of low quality. Despite this, Iraq’s military distributed gas masks to troops deployed west and north of Baghdad over the Summer, amidst fears Isis may expand their weapons use, a general told AP. Hakim al-Zamili, the head of the Iraqi parliament’s security and defence committee said: "Daesh [Isis] is working very seriously to reach production of chemical weapons, particularly nerve gas. That would threaten not just Iraq but the whole world."
MORFE
Well Assad has no issues using them, and we certainly did and developed them eh? Your kind isn't very big on fair play...
"But sometimes it's nice to have a real man around the house....."
Saddam is back from the dead giving ISIL his stockpile of Reagan chemical weapons stashed in Syria. Lets invade Venezuela and take their oil.
Islamic State militants attacked Kurdish forces in Iraq with mustard gas last year, in the first known use of chemical weapons in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein, a diplomat said, after tests by the global chemical arms watchdog. A source at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed that laboratory tests had come back positive for the sulphur mustard, after around 35 Kurdish troops were sickened on the battlefield last August. The OPCW will not identify who used the chemical agent. But the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because the findings have not yet been released, said the result confirmed that chemical weapons had been used by Islamic State fighters.
A fighter of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) holds an ISIL flag and a weapon on a street in the city of Mosul
The samples were taken after the soldiers became ill during fighting against Islamic State militants southwest of Erbil, capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region. The OPCW already concluded in October that mustard gas was used last year in neighbouring Syria. Islamic State has declared a "caliphate" in territory it controls in both Iraq and Syria and does not recognise the frontier. The matter is expected to be raised at the next meeting of the OPCW's 41-member Executive Council in a month, an official said. If Islamic State used chemical weapons, experts are still uncertain of how the group might have obtained them, or whether it could have access to more.
Another diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Syria’s stockpile was a possible source of the sulphur mustard used in Iraq. That would mean Damascus had failed to fully disclose its chemical weapons programme, which was dismantled under international supervision in 2013-2014, the diplomat said. "If Syria has indeed given up its chemical weapons to the international community, it is only the part that has been declared to the OPCW and the declaration was obviously incomplete,” the diplomat told Reuters. Syrian officials could not immediately be reached for comment but have previously denied any part of the country's former stockpile remains undestroyed.
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The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was sent samples after 35 Peshmerga fighters became ill near Irbil in August. On Monday, the sources said the samples tested positive for sulphur mustard. If confirmed, it would be the first known use of chemical weapons in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. OPCW experts recently concluded that sulphur mustard was used in August in neighbouring Syria, during fighting between IS and rebel forces. Sulphur mustard - commonly known as "mustard gas" although it is liquid at ambient temperature - is a powerful irritant and blistering agent which causes severe damage to the skin, eyes and respiratory system and internal organs.
'Black liquid'
The OPCW's report does not apportion blame for the attack in Iraq on 11 August, sources in The Hague told the Reuters and AFP news agencies. But when the Kurdistan Regional Government's ministry of Peshmerga affairs first reported the incident, it made it clear that it held IS militants responsible. The ministry said the affected Peshmerga fighters had been deployed along the frontline with IS, near the towns of Makhmour and Gwer when about 37 rounds exploded beside them, releasing a "white dust and black liquid". Tests on blood samples "revealed traces of mustard gas", it added.
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are battling Islamic State militants across northern Iraq
OPCW spokesman Malik Ellahi would only confirm on Monday that the watchdog had sent a team of experts to Iraq to assist the government's investigation. "The team completed its mission and the OPCW has shared the results of its technical work with the government of Iraq," a statement said, according to AFP. The OPCW's Executive Council is expected to discuss the findings next month. Experts are still uncertain about how IS might have obtained chemical weapons. One unnamed diplomat told the Reuters news agency that it was possible the sulphur mustard was obtained from the Syrian military's stockpile, which was supposedly destroyed after a deadly attack involving the nerve agent sarin outside Damascus in August 2013. However, CIA director John Brennan said on Sunday that IS militants were believed to have access to the necessary precursor chemicals and the capability to "manufacture small quantities of chlorine and mustard gas".
Samples 'confirm IS used mustard agent in Iraq attack' - BBC News
The fact is that ISIS can not create shit.
ISIS is given everything by its backers aka the USA.
ISIS announced not long ago they have miraculously created Stingrays ......today they say that they miraculously have chemical weapons and tomorrow by pure miracle again ......surprise, surprise......they will have nuclear weapons!
C'mon people wake up!
Obama's foreign policy at work.The fact is that ISIS can not create shit.
ISIS is given everything by its backers aka the USA.
ISIS announced not long ago they have miraculously created Stingrays ......today they say that they miraculously have chemical weapons and tomorrow by pure miracle again ......surprise, surprise......they will have nuclear weapons!
C'mon people wake up!
