Daesh Uses Mustard Gas in Attack on Syria Deir Ez-Zor Airport
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Daesh (ISIL) militants have reportedly used poisonous gas in an attack on a Syrian military airbase located in Deir ez-Zor, the largest city in the eastern part of the country, RIA Novosti cited a military source as saying early on Tuesday.
“The Daesh militants attacked the military airfield in Deir ez-Zor with shells containing a poisonous chemical substance. The defenders of the airbase have reported that a number of soldiers were choking,” the source said, as reported by Russia Today.
This latest report adds weight to previous evidence implicating Daesh in using various forms of poisonous gas to attack targets.
Kurdish deputies in the Turkish parliament have previously accused Turkey of supplying Daesh and other militant groups inside Syria with chemical weapons to fight the Syrian government.
In an interview with RT, a spokesman for the Kurdish YPG militia said that Turkey had provided a clear transit route for the chemical weapons that were deployed against them near the city of Aleppo in early March.
Anti-government militants “took advantage of the ceasefire” to launch attacks against a Kurdish-controlled area near Aleppo in northern Syria, Redur Xelil told RT. “Our sources inside the militant groups have confirmed that toxic substances were used.”
In early March, Iraqi governor Najmuddin Kareem said that Daesh fighters had used “poisonous substances” during the shelling of the village of Taza, which is located in northern Iraq.
More than 40 people suffered from partial chocking and skin irritation after mortar shells and Katyusha rockets filled with “poisonous substances” exploded in the mainly Shiite Turkmen village.
Moreover, back in February, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed reports that Daesh had been using chemical weapons against Kurdish forces in northern Iraq throughout 2015.
Under the 1949 Geneva Convention, such attacks constitute war crimes against humanity.
Yet, despite a 2013 resolution passed by the UN mandating the destruction of poisonous gas stockpiles, they have continued.
The Syrian government gave up its own supply of chemical weapons under international supervision after hundreds of civilians were killed by sarin nerve gas in a Damascus suburb in 2013. Western countries pointed the finger at President Bashar Assad for that atrocity, though his government has steadfastly denied the allegations.
