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IS militants plan to use banned mustard gas in Iraq, Syria: media

Xinhua, March 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

Militants of the Islamic State (IS) had planned to use mustard gas in Iraq and Syria, U.S. media reported on Wednesday, quoting U.S. defense officials.

Defense officials said that an IS detainee who was captured last month in Iraq by U.S. special operations force, revealed this during interrogation.

The IS operative was identified by U.S. defense officials as Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, a chemical and biological weapons expert who once worked for Iraq's Saddam Hussein government. He is currently held at a temporary detention facility in Erbil, Iraq, The New York Times reported.

Quoting U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, the newspaper said that the mustard gas, weaponized by the IS into powered form, was believed to be not concentrated enough to kill anyone.

The detainee would be handed over to the Iraqi and Kurdish authorities instead of being held indefinitely by the U.S. military, the report said, adding that the Pentagon did not intend to establish a long-term U.S. facility to hold IS detainees. Endit