Daesh Likely Produced Mustard Gas Used in Syria, Iraq Attacks: OPCW Chief
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The sulfur mustard gas that was used in terrorist attacks in Syria and Iraq might have been manufactured by Daesh (ISIS) on its own, said Ahmet Uzumcu, head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
The OPCW experts analyzed samples of mustard gas, employed in the August 2015 attack, saying that there’s ground to believe that “this substance may have been produced by ISIS itself,” Uzumcu said, Russia Today reported.
The officials stressed that the terrorist-made substance was “poor quality, but still harmful,” adding that it was an “extremely worrying” development.
“Especially, given the fact that there are several foreign fighters in those countries, who may go back to their countries of origin one day. This requires a high-degree of vigilance within our countries,” Uzumcu said.
The OPCW chief stressed that there has been “more than 20” allegations of chemical weapons use coming from both the Syrian government and the so-called “moderate” rebels since August 1.
The sides blame each other for the “use of chlorine and unidentified agents in Aleppo and in northern parts of Syria,” including Idlib, he said.
The OPCW received Syrian government’s freshest reports of chemicals weapons used by the militants, according to Uzumcu. The organization has already started “collecting information and analyzing” the allegations in order to find out if they are “credible or not in order to deepen our investigation.”
