ISIS fighters have fired several shells containing mustard agents at Iraqi, Kurdish and American troops, and the attacks generated a “moderate level of concern on a day-to-day basis,” a Defense Department official said.
Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists on Tuesday fired a rocket which contained a mustard agent at Qayara West air base, a military base in northern Iraq where hundreds of US troops are working with Iraqi troops.
The shell did not explode and no one was harmed in the attack.
US officials are still testing “a black, oily substance,” residue found on the rocket.
An initial test of the suspicious substance showed it contained residue of mustard agent, but a second test was negative.
Mustard agent, in sufficient quantities and concentration, can maim or kill by damaging skin, eyes and airways.
ISIS fighters have fired several shells containing mustard agents at Iraqi, Kurdish and American troops, and the attacks generated a “moderate level of concern on a day-to-day basis,” a Defense Department official said.
Earlier this month, American warplanes eliminated a “significant chemical threat” by bombing a complex of buildings near Mosul that ISIS had converted from pharmaceutical manufacturing to chemical weapons production.
The target, and ISIS headquarters, was also used to produce lethal chemicals, possibly including chlorine and mustard gas.
In March, during a raid in northern Iraq, US Special Forces captured the head of the ISIS unit that develops chemical weapons. The man was identified as Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, who worked for Saddam Hussein’s now-dissolved Military Industrialization Authority where he specialized in chemical and biological weapons.
ISIS has already deployed chemical weapons in the battlefield.
By: World Israel News Staff
AP contributed to this report.