The ISIS factory, converted from a pharmaceutical plant, was likely making chlorine or mustard gas, Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigian, head of US Air Forces Central Command, said during a press briefing.
It was destroyed in airstrikes on Monday carried out by fighter jets, ground-attack aircraft, and a B-52 bomber, the Pentagon confirmed.
Peshmerga on the frontlines with ISIS have suffered multiple chemical weapons attacks by ISIS. They however lack proper equipment to protect from such attacks.
“We are fighting on one of the most active fronts of this war, and we don’t have much protection against chemical attacks,” he said. “We don’t have too many masks and no body suits at all to protect from such attacks,” Rebin Rojbayani, a Peshmerga commander on the Makhmour-Gwer front told Rudaw in April.
“There aren’t really even any proper medicines to use when we are attacked,” he lamented.
Harrigian described ISIS’ use of chemical weapons as “just another example of Daesh’s [ISIS] blatant disregard for international law and norms.”
