An Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighter monitors his surrounding from the top of Mount Zardak. Photo / AFP
An Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighter monitors his surrounding from the top of Mount Zardak. Photo / AFP
Specialists take samples after Kurdish fighters tell
of suffering burns and breathing difficulties.
German troops involved in a coalition training mission in Iraq have reported that Isis (Islamic State) fighters have used chemical weapons on a Kurdish militia.
The German commanders, who have been mentoring the Kurds on Isis' front lines in northern Iraq, sent an urgent message to the German Defence Ministry in Berlin after hearing that the Kurds had been attacked on Wednesday. The Kurdish fighters, whose militia is known as the Peshmerga, told the Germans that some had suffered severe burns to their bodies, while others had difficulty breathing.
United States and French chemical weapons specialists arrived in the area yesterday to take samples and determine whether chemical weapons had indeed been used.
There have been repeated claims of Isis using chlorine gas in attacks in Iraq in recent weeks, raising fears that jihadists could also dispatch fighters to carry out chemical attacks in Europe. The latest incident took place on Kurdish positions near the town of Makhmur, 35km southwest of Erbil.
The terrorist Daesh [Isis] launched 45 120mm mortar shells tipped with chemical heads on Peshmerga positions, which led to the injury of a number of Peshmerga forces with burns on different parts of their bodies.
This had led to "the arrival of a joint American and French military team at the site of the incident to commence an investigation into the type of material used".
About 90 German soldiers are stationed in Erbil on a mission to train Peshmerga troops in the use of sophisticated weapons. German troops stationed nearby believe the attack is consistent with the use of chemical-tipped mortar or artillery shells. Their commanders sent a report on the attack to Berlin, which was taken seriously enough to be rushed straight to the Defence Minister, according to Bild newspaper.
The Defence Ministry, which is providing arms and weapons training to the Kurdish forces, said earlier "there was a chemical weapons attack" near Erbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.
A second ministry spokesman later stressed that German forces were not present during the attack, but that "we have indications that there was an attack with chemical weapons".
German troops are not taking any extra precautions, the Defence Ministry said, as they were nearly 60km from the scene of the attack.
"Last night at least 45 mortar rounds were fired at our positions, which we believe were loaded with chemicals, since the wounds are different," Mohammed Khoshawi, a Peshmerga commander, told Rudaw, a Kurdish media outlet.
Peshmerga forces have been instructed to use gas masks during future mortar attacks, he added.
Kurdish fighters have been subjected to such attacks in the past. During two attacks in Hasakeh province on June 28, it was reported that upon impact, projectiles filled with an unknown chemical agent had released a yellow gas "with a strong smell of rotten onions". Troops exposed to it had burning of the throat, eyes and nose, severe headaches, muscle pain, impaired concentration and mobility, and vomiting.
"Although these chemical attacks appear to be test cases, we expect Isis construction skills to advance rapidly as they have for other IEDS [improvised explosive devices]," said a spokesman at the time.
Meanwhile, the death toll from a truck bombing claimed by Isis in a Shia-majority area of Baghdad on Thursday rose to 54, making it the deadliest single attack in the city in months. The blast, which was likely aimed at undermining confidence in the Government and stoking sectarian tensions, was detonated in a wholesale vegetable market in the Sadr City area of north Baghdad around 6am, the peak time for wholesale trading. Isis claimed responsibility for the "blessed operation" in an online statement.
