Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, Islamic State’s former Head of Chemical Weapons Unit, was apprehended by the United States last month. The terrorist official was interrogated at a temporary detention center in Erbil, where al-Afari told authorities that ISIS has the chemical weapon mustard gas. Now, it appears that ISIS has utilized these chemical weapons in a vicious attack in northern Iraq.
ISIL fighters unleashed two chemical attacks near the city of Kirkuk in Iraq, killing three-year-old Fatima Samir and wounding up to 600 people, Iraqi officials have said. Early Saturday morning, rockets filled with chemicals were fired from the ISIS-held town of Bashir upon the small town of Taza, which was also struck by chemical weapons only three days earlier.
Those who were wounded in the attacks are suffering from infected burns, suffocation and dehydration, which are all symptoms of exposure to mustard gas. Four people remain in serious condition from injuries from the attack. Forensic teams from Germany and the U.S. were deployed to the area to test the chemicals in the attack.
“There is fear and panic among the women and children,” said Adel Hussein, a local official in Taza. “They’re calling for the central government to save them.”
ISIS has used mustard and chlorine gas against Kurdish fighters approximately a dozen times since last summer.
“We found that the mustard agent used by ISIS is somewhat weaker than the weapons grade variant produced by nation-states, which indicates they probably have some people with chemistry training working in a lab somewhere producing their own mustard gas,” a knowledgeable U.S. military source told Vocativ. “So far the ISIS gas attacks have not been particularly effective in causing mass casualties, but psychologically they certainly have an impact we can’t ignore.”
Tests confirmed the toxic gas was used by ISIL in a Syrian town in August 2015.
Vocatic is reporting that Islamic State fighters have vowed to continue to produce chemical weapons such as mustard gas and Agent Orange despite the capture of the ISIL’s Head of Chemical Weapons Unit.