ISIS & chemical weaponsISIS conducting chemical experiments on its prisoners

In the ace of sustained attacks by coalition forces, ISIS has moved its chemical weapons labs to densely populated residential areas in Mosul — and is testing homemade chlorine and mustard gas on its prisoners held in different facilities in and around the city.

ISIS has been working in chemical weapons for a while, relying on the expertise of scientists who served in the chemical weapons complex of Saddam Hussein, but also on Europeans with chemical degrees from leading European universities.

Deccan Chronicle reports that the leader of the organization’s chemical unit, Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, was captured in March by U.S. Special Forces, and has been sharing intelligence on the group’s chemical weapons program.

Daoud al-Afari has now been replaced by Abu Shaima, an Iraqi doctor who worked at the University of Baghdad during Saddam’s years.

The Iraqi media reported that residents of al-Mohandseen, which used to be a wealthy Christian neighborhood, said that in the last few weeks ISIS had evicted families from several houses in the neighborhood, and that large unmarked trucks have been parked outside. More recently, residents noticed dozens of dead dogs and rabbits in nearby rubbish containers. 

An ISIS insider confirmed to the Telegraph that the animals had been used for chemical testing. He also said that ISIS had conducted chemical tests on prisoners the organization holds in a jail in al-Andalus, a small town near Mosul. 

Iraqi medical authorities reported that residents living near the jail have complained about breathing difficulties, and that children in the area have developed skin rashes – both typically associated with the presence of chemical agents.

ISIS has captured several chemical agents storage facilities when it ran over large area of Ira two years ago. The organization has also captured chemical precursors and weapon from Bashar al-Assad’s stocks.

ISI has already used chemical weapons against Kurdish forces, and in March, it used chemical weapons to attack the outskirts of the Iraqi town of Taza, south of Kirkuk, killing three children and forcing about 1,500 people to seek medical treatment.

Brig. Roger Noble, the deputy commander of international troops training and supporting the Iraqi army,  told the Telegraph that ISIS will likely use chemical weapons against troops trying to retake Mosul.

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, former commanding officer of the UK Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment (CBRN) and chemical weapons adviser to NGOs in Syria and Iraq, told the Telegraph the revelations showed the group was adapting to the coalition’s effective air strikes.

“ISIL’s chemical weapons operation has been heavily targeted - as is detailed in this report - and moving into residential areas is exactly what you would expect them to do now.”

He said Western security services should be concerned that ISIS chemical operations have effectively gone underground, allowing them to continue their work outside of strike range. 

“Now we know the extent of the Isil chemical and dirty bomb aspirations we must make doubly sure that our security in the U.K. is absolutely water-tight against this threat.”