ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Initial tests confirm that the Islamic State group (ISIS or ISIL) used “a class one chemical agent” against the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces in an attack earlier this month, a US military official announced.
Several Peshmerga soldiers were wounded in an August 11 mortar-launched chemical weapons attack by ISIS on the Makhmour front, southwest of Erbil.
"A couple of days later (we) were able to take the fragments from some of those mortar rounds and do a field test -- a presumptive field test on those fragments -- and they showed the presence of HD, or what is known as sulfur mustard,” said Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Killea, chief of staff for the Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve.
“That is a class one chemical agent,” he said in comments Thursday.
He added that a definitive assessment has yet to be released, explaining that a presumptive field test is not conclusive.
"It's going to take us a couple of weeks to do the full testing on those fragments to figure out exactly what was contained in or on those mortar rounds before we make a determination on exactly what it was, potentially how much it was, and maybe even where it came from," Killea said.
“It's important that any indication of use of a chemical warfare agent purely from our perspective reinforces our position that this is an abhorrent group that will kill indiscriminately without any moral or legal code or restraint," he added.
Immediately after the attack, the German Ministry of Defence reported there was a “possible chemical weapons attack on the Kurdish frontlines at sector six.”
According to Kurdish military officials from the scene of the attack, ISIS launched 45 mortars containing chemical gas.
“Thirty-eight of the projectiles exploded when they hit the ground, but seven did not,” said Mohamad Asad Khoshavi, a Peshmerga commander.
Mustard gas, or sulfur mustard, has been classified as a chemical warfare agent by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The gas was invented and gained infamy in World War I and was prohibited by international treaty in 1993.
This spring, the Kurdish government informed its allies that Peshmerga forces were attacked with chlorine gas. Late last year, ISIS reportedly seized an Iraqi chemical weapons factory with about 2,500 rockets, containing the deadly nerve agent Sarin.
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