CIA: ’ISIS’ Used, can Make Chemical Weapons

Local Editor

CIA director John Brennan has said that "ISIS" militants have used chemical weapons and have the capability to make small quantities of chlorine and mustard gas, CBS News reported Thursday.

"We have a number of instances where "ISIS" has used chemical munitions on the battlefield," Brennan told CBS News, which released excerpts of an interview to air in full on the "60 Minutes" news program Sunday.

The network added that he told "60 Minutes" the CIA believes that the "ISIS" group has the ability to make small amounts of mustard or chlorine gas for weapons.

"There are reports that "ISIS" has access to chemical precursors and munitions that they can use," Brennan said.

Brennan also warned of the possibility that the "ISIS" group could seek to export the weapons to the West for financial gain.

"I think there's always the potential for that. This is why it's so important to cut off the various transportation routes and smuggling routes that they have used," he said.

When asked if there were "American assets on the ground" searching for possible chemical weapons caches or labs, Brennan replied: "US intelligence is actively involved in being a part of the efforts to destroy "ISIS" and to get as much insight into what they have on the ground inside of Syria and Iraq."

The release of the interview excerpts comes two days after similar comments from spy chief James Clapper before a congressional committee.

"ISIS has also used toxic chemicals in Iraq and Syria, including the blister agent sulfur mustard," Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told lawmakers Tuesday.

He said it was the first time an extremist group had produced and used a chemical warfare agent in an attack since Japan's Aum Supreme Truth cult carried out a deadly sarin attack during rush hour in the Tokyo subway in 1995.

Last year, officials in the autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan said blood tests had shown that "ISIS" terrorists used mustard agent in an attack on Kurdish peshmerga forces in August.

Thirty-five peshmerga fighters were exposed and some taken abroad for treatment, officials said.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team