Saddam-Era Chemical Weapons Now Under ISIS Control: Reports - Are These the Chemical Weapons They Recently Used?

Saddam-Era Chemical Weapons Now Under ISIS Control: Reports

Correction: In the original story, the name of the city where the chemical weapons facility is located was incorrectly mentioned as Muthanna in the third paragraph. While the name of the weapons complex is Muthanna, it is located near the city of Samarra, northwest of Baghdad. 

The story has been updated to reflect this correction. According to a recent report published in the journal Middle East Review of International Affairs, or MERIA, militants of the Islamic State group used chemical weapons, including mustard gas, against Kurdish fighters in the Syrian border town of Kobani during their first attempt to capture the town in July.

ISIS chemical weapons: Islamic State launch mustard gas attacks in Syria and Iraq

ISIS have launched mustard gas attacks in Syria and Iraq It is understood the militant group is making its own as there is no evidence they have acquired mustard gas from government stores in the Middle East. 

News of the chemical attacks came after US officials said they suspected ISIS were making and using crude chemical weapons in Syria and Iraq. Peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq have reported at least five attacks on their positions in northern Iraq in the past two months with mortar shells or Katyusha rockets filled with sulphur mustard, a blistering agent first used during the First World War.