Confirmed: ISIS Using Banned Chemical Weapons in Iraq; U.S. Troops Moving Into Contaminated Areas

By Stoyan Zaimov. A diplomat with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has confirmed laboratory tests that show the Islamic State terror group has been using banned chemical weapons on soldiers in Iraq.

Reuters reported on Monday that the diplomat, who chose to remain anonymous because the OPCW report has not yet been officially released, said the findings point to IS using sulfur mustard gas on around 35 Kurdish troops last August, in at least one confirmed case.

The use of chemical weapons has been banned throughout the vast majority of the world, with sulfur mustard known to cause severe delayed burns to the eyes, skin and respiratory tract.

Although the OPCW concluded back in October that mustard gas has been used in the civil war raging in Syria, which IS is also a part of, the new findings show that.

The question also arises of how IS has managed to obtain chemical weapons. Another diplomat suggested to Reuters that the terror group might have obtained the sulfur mustard agent from the stockpiles of the Syrian regime, which had promised to dismantle its chemical weapons program by 2014. (Read more from “Confirmed: ISIS Using Banned Chemical Weapons in Iraq; U.S. Troops Moving Into Contaminated Areas” HERE)

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U.S. Troops in Iraq Move Into Region Where ISIS Just Used Mustard Gas

By Andrew Tilghman. U.S. troops in Iraq are setting up a train-advise-and-assist team at a forward operating base near the Islamic State group’s front lines outside of Mosul, not far from the site of recent chemical weapons attacks.

The Nineveh Operations Center in the farming village of Makhmour will be a primary base for the U.S. to support the Iraqis’ long-awaited battle to seize Mosul from Islamic State militants, also known as ISIS or ISIL, a U.S. military official said.

A large convoy of Iraqi army forces began arriving at the base in Makhmour in early February. Iraq’s military leaders plan to deploy about 4,500 soldiers to the area for the Mosul operation, Iraqi officials said.

“There’s a lot going on in Makhmour. That’s where one of our operations centers is located. So there are American advise-and-assist capabilities there,” said Army Col. Steve Warren, a U.S. Defense Department spokesman in Baghdad. (Read more from “U.S. Troops in Iraq Move Into Region Where ISIS Just Used Mustard Gas” HERE)

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