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Poison gas projectiles used against Syrian, Iraqi Kurds and civilians by Islamic State militants: monitors

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Chlorine cloud from Islamic State group bomb
A chlorine-tinged cloud of smoke rises into the air from an Islamic State militants' bomb detonated by Iraq fighters in March.(Reuters: Thaier Al-Sudani)
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The Islamic State (IS) group used poison gas projectiles in attacks against Kurdish-controlled areas of Syria and Iraq in late June, Kurdish militia backed by UK groups monitoring the Syrian conflict have said.

Two UK-based organisations investigating attacks on Kurdish forces and civilian targets, Conflict Armament Research (CAR) and Sahan Research, said they had confirmed the use of chemical weapons in Syria, as well as chemical agents used in an attack on an Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga position on June 21 or 22.

The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said IS fighters had fired "makeshift chemical projectiles" on June 28 at a YPG-controlled area of the Syrian city of Hasaka, and at YPG positions south of the town of Tel Brak to the north-east of Hasaka city.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group that reports on the war using an activist network on the ground, said it had also documented the use of poison gas projectiles by the IS group in the Tel Brak attack.

It was the first attack of its kind against the YPG said Redur Xelil, a spokesman for the militia.

In a separate statement, CAR and Sahan Research said three attacks — two in north-eastern Syria and one in Iraq — were "the first documented use by (IS) forces of projectile-delivered chemical agents against Kurdish forces and civilian targets".

They said urine samples taken from those affected in the Tal Brak attack tested positive for a compound that is commonly found in agricultural pesticides.

But they had no definitive answer yet on the precise chemical composition of the agents that had been used in the two attacks in Syria.

None of the YPG fighters exposed to the gas had died because they were quickly taken to hospital.

Kurdish forces are playing a vital role in the fight against IS militants in both Syria and Iraq, where the ultra-radical group has seized wide areas declaring them part of a cross-border "caliphate" claiming to rule all Muslims.

The White House said it was aware of the reports of chemical weapons use and was seeking additional information.

"We continue to monitor these reports closely," said Alistair Baskey, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, in a statement.

IS fighters equipped for chemical warfare

The Nusra Front, Al Qaeda's affiliate in the Syrian war, has previously accused the Islamic State group of setting a booby trap using barrels of chlorine.

And in March, the autonomous Kurdish government in northern Iraq said it had evidence that the jihadist group used chlorine in a car bomb attack on January 23.

But in the Iraq attack, IS forces had fired a projectile "containing a liquid chemical agent at the peshmerga Mosul Dam checkpoint", Iraqi Kurdish authorities said.

"The characteristics and clinical effects of this substance are consistent with a chlorine chemical agent," the statement said.

In a statement, the YPG said its Syrian forces had captured industrial-grade gas masks in the last four weeks from IS fighters, "confirming that they are prepared and equipped for chemical warfare along this sector of the front".

It said soldiers exposed to the gas "experienced burning of the throat, eyes and nose, combined with severe headaches, muscle pain and impaired concentration and mobility".

"Prolonged exposure to the chemicals also caused vomiting," it added.

The United States, along with Britain and France, accuse Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's regime of using chlorine gas against civilians.

Six people, including three young children, were killed in the March 16 attack on Sarmin village in north-west Idlib province, allegedly by Assad forces.


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