Samples confirm IS used mustard gas: Diplomat

“The results of some sampling have confirmed the use of mustard gas,” one source said, asking to remain anonymous. The news comes amid an investigation by the Iraqi government into the 2015 attacks aided by the OPCW, based in The Hague. Laboratory tests had come back positive for the sulfur mustard, after around 35 Kurdish troops were sickened on the battlefield last August. 

Iraqi Kurd authorities last year said two attacks were carried out by Islamic State group fighters on August 11 on the front line towns of Gweyr and Makhmur southwest of Arbil, during which around 50 mortar rounds were launched. The ministry said “37 of the rounds released a white dust and black liquid when they exploded. Thirty-five peshmerga fighters were exposed and some were taken for treatment. The results of the tests on blood samples reveal traces of mustard gas,” the ministry said at the time, but the origin of the suspected gas was unclear. 

OPCW spokesman Malik Ellahi confirmed the watchdog had sent a team of experts to help Iraq in its investigation into possible chemical weapons. “The team completed its mission and the OPCW has shared the results of its technical work with the government of Iraq,” Ellahi said in a statement, and refused to give further details. 

US national intelligence director James Clapper last week told a congressional committee that the IS group have used toxic chemicals in Iraq and Syria, including sulphur mustard. Clapper said it was the first time an extremist group had produced and used a chemical warfare agent in an attack since Japan’s Aum Supreme Truth cult carried out a deadly sarin attack during rush hour in the Tokyo subway in 1995.