Chemical threat: Iraqi Kurds say IS used chlorine gas against them
Author yuvamind
Iraqi Kurdish officer said on March, 15 that chlorine gas had used as a chemical weapon against their peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq in January by Islamic state.
The Security Council of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region said in a statement to Reuters that the peshmerga had taken soil and clothing samples after an Islamic State car bombing attempt Security Council of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region saidon Jan. 23.
According to laboratory analysis "the samples contained levels of chlorine that suggested the substance was used in weaponised form." The Kurdish allegation could not be independently confirmed.
Chlorine is used as a chemical weapon dates back to World War One. It is banned under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, which prohibits all use of toxic agents on the battlefield.
Chlorine has been used "systematically" in the civil war in neighbouring Syria, an OPCW fact-finding mission found last year. The OPCW would have to get its own samples to confirm the use of chemical weapons in a member state. The Kurdish said in statement that the car bombing happened on a highway between Mosul and the Syrian border.
A Kurdish security source said that the peshmerga fired a rocket at the car carrying the bomb so there were no casualties, except for the suicide bomber.
The statement said the analysis was carried out in a European Union-certified laboratory after the soil and samples were sent by the Kurdish Regional Government.