Daily Telegraph: Daesh to Blow up a Chemical Plant in Mosul Battle!

Local Editor

The Daily Telegraph reported that the Takfiri Daesh [Arabic acronym for "ISIS" / "ISIL"] planned to blow up the chemical plant at the outbreak of the battle of the restoration of the city.

According to the report, Daesh militants had rigged one of Iraq's largest chemical complexes with explosives as they prepare to confront forces advancing into Mosul.

The report released on Thursday said that Iraqi popular forces and the Iraqi Army expect fierce fighting from the militants in the city, which has more than 1.2 million people.

The report cited Hemc Colonel de Bretton-Gordon, a former officer in command of Britain's Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment [CBRN], as saying that commanders had intelligence that Daesh militants were planning to blow up the factory when the soldiers approached them.

The Misraq chemical plant and sulfur mine lies 30 miles south of Mosul and six miles north of Qayyarah airbase, where several hundred US troops are stationed alongside the Iraqi army.

The report pointed out that the bombing of the chemical plant, which is thought to hold thousands of tons of sulfur and hydrogen sulfide, would be a major concern as ground forces advance.

According to calculations by Col de Bretton-Gordon, the fallout could have a radius of six to 10 miles, putting Iraqi and US forces at risk.

"They're going to throw the kitchen sink at any army that comes near Mosul," said Col de Bretton Gordon. "It'll be catastrophic."

Not to mention, Haider al-Abadi, Iraq's prime minister, said this week that the army was preparing to begin the battle for Iraq's second city, held by Daesh since 2014, next month.

The report indicated that the Takfiris fired a rocket containing suspected mustard gas at the base in Qayyarah on Tuesday, their first chemical attack on US servicemen in Iraq noting that this could be a sign of what could be to come.

However, US officials said the soldiers were as yet not suffering any symptoms.

Accordingly, preliminary tests conducted by the US Army showed a mustard agent, a banned chemical that can burn the skin and lungs. It has been sent to a lab for definitive analysis.

"It was mustard agent in a powderized form - the same thing we have seen ["ISIL"] use to little effect many times in the past in both Syria and Iraq," said a Pentagon spokesman, adding that the agent was "low-grade" and poorly weaponized. "The device, likely a rocket or mortar, was imprecise and crude," the spokesman added.

Source: Daily Telegraph, Edited by website team