KURDS DESCRIBE CHEMICAL ATTACKS
Summer strike first use of banned arms in Iraq since Saddam
Ahmad Rasool, 21, was drinking tea with 20 other Kurdish soldiers when Islamic State mortars began to hit. The Kurds were used to such attacks after battling the militants for more than a year, but this one was different: On impact, clouds of what turned out to be mustard gas filled the air.
“Suddenly, I had to really scratch my back,” Rasool told USA TODAY about the attack in August 2015. “Red spots then started to appear on my skin like boils. ... I saw that some of the other soldiers, their skin and hands were swelling up.”
Rasool’s position was hit by what has been confirmed to be the first chemical weapon attack on Iraqi soil since dictator Saddam Hussein unleashed chemical weapons against Kurds in 1988. Other Kurdish positions around Kirkuk and Gwer also were hit last summer.
Chemical attacks by the extremist group are becoming more frequent in Iraq, causing panic and disarray among soldiers and civilians alike, according to the Kurdish fighters, known as pesh
merga.
Wednesday, the U.S. military revealed that it destroyed an Islamic State chemical weapons facility as a result of intelligence from a captured fighter who was a top chemical weapons official under Saddam.
Chemical weapons are banned under an international treaty signed in the wake of their lethal use during World War I.
Makhmour has been hit by four chemical attacks — chlorine and mustard gas — since the strike in August, the soldiers said. Mortars made of metal pipes and more sophisticated 122mm Grad rockets carry the potentially deadly chemicals.
“With the chemical attack, it isn’t clear what is going to happen, what the harm will be,” Rasool said. “For me, it is more dangerous than a normal attack.”
Kurdish Cmdr. Mahadi Younis said he believed the weapons were manufactured in nearby Mosul, the Islamic State’s stronghold in Iraq. Although they were crudely made and have caused no known fatalities, Younis said the militants probably will make them more lethal.
“They are experimenting with new tactics and new ways of fighting us,” Younis said. “They use anything they have to survive without even considering the lives of civilians.”
Malik Ellahi, a spokesman for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the international group that monitors illegal use of such weapons, told USA TODAY that the repeated reports of Islamic State attacks are a “serious concern.” Ellahi said the OPCW recently sent a team of experts to work with the Iraqi government to investigate the use of chemical weapons.
Though the group confirmed that mustard gas has been used, it has yet to confirm reports that the militants use chlorine. The alleged chlorine attacks include:
On Feb. 25, the Islamic State launched 19 rockets on Sinjar, a remote corner of northern Iraq where the militants had attempted to wipe out a community of the Yazidi religious sect. Nearly 200 people were treated for severe vomiting, nausea and headaches, according to local media reports and the Free Burma Rangers, a non-profit group of medics who work in the region.
On March 2, the Tal Afar district near Sinjar was hit by at least six rockets that emitted a yellow smoke on impact. Three civilians, including two children, were hospitalized with nausea, vomiting and skin irritation, according to the International NGO Safety Organization, a British charity that supports the safety of aid workers. Taza, an Iraqi town near Kirkuk, experienced a similar attack on the same day, sending 40 people to Kirkuk General Hospital with similar conditions, the aid workers safety group said.
On March 3, 20 rockets were fired at Keske Junction north of Mosul. Marwan Ahmad, 32, who lives in a small hamlet at the junction, described panicked scenes as the rockets rained down on the homes of civilians and the surrounding fields. He said only one rocket exploded, injuring a dozen people, while the other 19 were embedded in the ground.
Ahmad, who was in his house when the attack began, said one landed yards away. “I saw the smoke, and tears started running down my face. My skin was itchy. It started to go red and bubbled up,” he said. Ahmad said he had to be taken to a hospital, and a cousin remains very ill from the attack.
Kurdish Lt. Muhammed Sabri said he fears the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS, is turning increasingly to easy-toconceal chemical weapons as the militants lose ground to Kurdish fighters and Iraqi security forces aided by increased airstrikes conducted by a U.S.-led coalition.
Sabri said it is a sign of the militants’ desperation on the battlefield.
“Now we expect them (chemical attacks),” he said. “They have been weakened recently, and this is their response.”