There is a growing belief within the US
government that the Islamic State militant group
is making and using crude chemical weapons in
Iraq and Syria, a US official has told the BBC.
The US has identified at least four occasions on both
sides of the Iraq-Syria border where IS has used
mustard agents, the official said.
The official said the chemical was being used in
powder form.
A BBC team on the Turkey-Syria border has seen
evidence backing these claims.
The US believes the group has a cell dedicated to
building these weapons.
"They're using mustard," the individual said of IS.
"We know they are."
The mustard agent was probably being used in
powder form and packed into traditional explosives
like mortar rounds, the official said.
"We've seen them use it on at least four separate
occasions on both sides of the border - both Iraq and
Syria."
When these weapons explode the mustard-laced dust
blisters those who are exposed to it.
The official said the intelligence community believes
there are three possible explanations for how IS
acquired the deadly chemical agent.
The most plausible in the eyes of intelligence
community, according to the official, is that they are
manufacturing it.
"We assess that they have an active chemical
weapons little research cell that they're working on
to try and get better at it," the official said.
The alternative theories are that IS militants found
chemical weapons caches in Iraq or in Syria.
It is unlikely that militants found the chemical agent
in Iraq, the official said, because the US military
would have probably discovered it during the military
campaign it waged in the country for about a decade.
The official said that militants were unlikely to have
seized the chemical agent from the Syrian regime
before the regime was forced to hand over its
stockpile under the threat of US air strikes in 2013.
The most likely theory, the official said, was that it
was being made using knowledge that is widely
available, and pointed out that the mustard agent is
not a complex chemical to produce.
The US government's position continues to be that it
is investigating claims of chemical weapons use in
Iraq and Syria, but the official speaking to the BBC
said that many intelligence agencies now believe
there is now enough evidence to back up these
claims.
The official requested anonymity because that person
was not authorised to speak about it publicly.
In recent days, the BBC's Ian Pannell, working from
the Turkey-Syria border, has seen new evidence of
chemical attacks being carried out in Syria -
potentially by the regime and rebels.
However, Syria should be free of chemical weapons
after a UN-backed deal that saw the Syrian
government hand over 1,180 tonnes of declared
toxic agents and precursor chemicals to the
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons (OPCW).
That process began in October 2013, and was
completed by June of the following year.
Our correspondent Ian Pannell notes that more than
200,000 people have died since the Syrian civil war
began following anti-government protests in early
2011, but only a tiny percentage are believed to have
died as a result of chemical weapons.
Last month, the UN launched an investigation to
determine which individuals, groups or governments
are involved in the use of chemicals as weapons in
Syria.
And that same month, the US military said tests on IS
mortar fragments from fighting in Iraq show traces
of chemical arms.
US Brig Gen Kevin Killea said in late August that the
US had found traces of the chemical agent sulphur
mustard on mortars used by IS to attack Kurdish
forces in northern Iraq.
At the time, however, he also said that the tests were
not conclusive and final testing was needed.
He described sulphur mustard as a Class 1 chemical
agent, one that is rarely used outside of chemical
warfare.
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