By: Annette Brinckerhoff
ISIS has begun using chemical weapons against Kurdish soldiers, reports Conflict Armament Research (CAR). Evidence of explosives filled with chemical agents has been discovered in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah and near Iraq’s Mosul. So far, three attacks have been reported since early this year.
Kurdish soldiers who were exposed had no bullet or shrapnel wounds, but instead burn marks all over their bodies. As well as, “loss of focus; loss of consciousness… pain from the waist down, resulting in temporary, localized paralysis” says Bevan, CAR’s executive director. When taken to a hospital for treatment soldiers tested positive for PH3, a phosphine-based insecticide.
If these reports are true and ISIS has gained access to chemical weapons, there are limited ways they could have procured them. Only a few countries haven’t signed onto the Chemical Weapons Convention, an international treaty banning the use of chemical weapons. Syria and Iraq have both signed the CWC, yet large stockpiles of chemical agents have been left under mediocre security measures. In Iraq, ISIS has taken over the city of Fallujah, which served as the storage site for many of the weapons Saddam developed in the 1980s. Although most of the sites were destroyed, two bunkers were sealed with concrete and rebar as Iraqi and U.S. forces made plans for dismantling the facility. However, as of June, ISIS has overrun the area, claiming it’s contents for their personal arsenal.
Syria could also be contributing to ISIS’s chemical weapons collection, as their 1,300 metric ton stockpile gradually being destroyed was interrupted by civil war. In 2013 Assad’s government was accused of using sarin gas on civilians in their efforts against rebel groups. Fallout from international pressure forced the regime to join CWC and begin the process of disposing their chemical weapons, unfortunately chaos fell upon Syria and ISIS may have very likely gained control of the stockpiles.
Even despite the large stores of chemical weapons and agents available to IS, evidence suggests that they have been experimenting with their own designed. Filling improvised explosives with easy to find chemicals, like chlorine and agents used for agriculture.
The use of chemical weapons by ISIS is another in a series of actions proving IS’s disinterest in following internationally accepted codes of engagement. It also indicates a capacity to adapt to their resources and surroundings, using what is available to them and making it work.
Western powers have long been dreading the day terrorist organizations utilize chemical weapons, and that day has come. Hopefully ISIS has not ushered in a new era where the terrorist’s weapon of choice is a dirty bomb.