OPCW: Daesh Likely Produced Mustard Gas Used in Syria, Iraq Attacks

Local Editor

The sulfur mustard gas that was used in terrorist attacks in Syria and Iraq might have been manufactured by Daesh [ISIS/ISIL] 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 Daesh itself," Uzumcu told AFP.

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 added.

Uzumcu was speaking shortly after the UN Security Council prolonged the mandate of the UN and OPCW joint special panel in Syria for another year to look into the reported chemical weapon attacks in the country.

Meanwhile, the use of chemical weapons by Jabhat Al-Nusra militants in Aleppo remains unaddressed.

There were at least three such attacks by the terrorist group in less than a month, with experts from the Russian Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Forces' research center saying that chlorine and white phosphorus were used in the attacks.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team