ISISISIS manufacturing chemical weapons: UN watchdog

A team of investigators at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said that there is “worrying” evidence ISIS is making its own chemical weapons.

An OPCW team of investigators said they had found evidence of the use of homemade sulphur mustard in attacks in Syria and Iraq.

“The suspicions are that (ISIS) may have produced it themselves, which is extremely worrying,” Ahmet Uzumcu, the head of OPCW, said Friday. “It proves that they have the technology, know-how and also access to the materials which might be used for the production of chemical weapons.” 

India Times reports that ISISis believed to have set up a special unit for chemical weapons research made up of Iraqi scientists who worked on weapons programs under Saddam Hussein. The unit also employs foreign experts.

The Telegraph reports that leaked Isil files seen by the newspaper showed a number of senior foreign fighters with chemical engineering degrees, and others with lengthy experience in the field back home.

Earlier this year an American Special Forces raided facilities operated by the special chemical unit, finding evidence that ISIS had been manufacturing chlorine and a low-grade sulphur mustard.

ISIS has weaponized the agents by using the large number of empty chemical weapons shells it has seized in Iraqi and Syrian military bases, which the Islamists captured during the course of the war.

ISIS has already used chemical weapons in an attack on the Iraqi town of Taza, south of Kirkuk, in March. The militants have previously used mustard and chlorine gas in weapons fired at Kurdish forces in northern Iraq and Syria.

“The international community should be very vigilant to such threats and cooperate further to prevent such attacks from occurring elsewhere,” Uzumcu said.