Troubling information is surfacing about just how advanced ISIS is getting in terms of weaponizing for their fight against the west.
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Speaking under the condition of anonymity, Iraqi and U.S. intelligence officials are saying that ISIS has set up a branch dedicated to producing chemical weapons. They have recruited both civilian and military experts as well as those that helped run Saddam Hussein’s infamous Military Industrialization Authority.
Officials believe that the locations of these labs are deep in ISIS held Syria and the fear is that what is produced there could be used in the Middle East or beyond.
ISIS has a history of using chemical weapons, having used mustard gas against the Kurds last year. Due to this the Iraqi army has been issued gas masks and Russia has provided them with chemical repellant suits.
Hakim al-Zamili who heads the Iraqi parliament says:
“Daesh [aka ISIS] is working very seriously to reach production of chemical weapons, particularly nerve gas. That would threaten not just Iraq but the whole world.”
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From the Associated Press:
BAGHDAD (AP) — The Islamic State group is aggressively pursuing development of chemical weapons, setting up a branch dedicated to research and experiments with the help of scientists from Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the region, according to Iraqi and U.S. intelligence officials.
Their quest raises an alarming scenario for the West, given the determination to strike major cities that the group showed with its bloody attack last week in Paris. U.S. intelligence officials don’t believe IS has the capability to develop sophisticated weapons like nerve gas that are most suited for a terrorist attack on a civilian target. So far the group has used mustard gas on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria.
Still, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Thursday warned that Islamic extremists might at some point use chemical or biological weapons.
Read more at the Associated Press
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