ISIL fighters have captured large swathes of territory in Iraq and neighbouring Syria [Reuters]
Iraqis Say ISIL Used Chlorine Gas In Attacks -- Reuters
Officials north of Baghdad say soldiers and Shia fighters were poisoned in fighting last month.
Iraqi government officials have said ISIL used chlorine gas during fighting with Iraqi soldiers and Shia militia north of Baghdad.
A senior security official, a local official from the town of Duluiya and an official from the town of Balad said the group used bombs with chlorine-filled cylinders during clashes in September.
They told the Associated Press on Friday that about 40 troops and militiamen were affected by the chlorine and showed symptoms of chlorine poisoning, but quickly recovered.
The Washington Post also reported on Friday that 11 police offices had been rushed to hospital about 80km north of Baghdad last month with signs of chlorine poisoning.
Read more ....
Update: Islamic State militants thought to be using chlorine bombs -- AP
Previous Post: Report: Islamic State Used Chemical Weapons Against Iraqi Forces
My Comment: Just another war crime committed by the Islamic State. It is also becoming more and more clear that the "normal rules" of warfare do not apply to the Islamic State.
2 comments:
Tactically, it is very effective hype.
Iraqi and Kurdish forces lack CBW gear, ( and it would be a liability anyway), but have a historic fear of CBW.
Lob a bottle of Javex with a grenade attached intheir general direction, and as soon as they get a whiff of that Indoor Pool Aroma, many will break and run.
Arosolized chlorine fumes are only an "irritant" in minor concentrations, massive amounts, actual rolling fogs of chlorine gas, (ususally released from massed tanks of compressed chlorine gas, not the samevthing as a bottle of bleach), are required to create the choking and deadly effects of say, WW1.
ISIS has neither the technology or the equiptment.
Cyanogen Chloride, and Nitrogen Chloride, are the nerve agent "chlorines", that were used in the Iran-Iraq War, and during the Kurdish Revolts. These are the forms thatvcan be delivered by gas shells or bombs, but again, both are beyond ISIS's capabilities.
IMHO, it is important to remember the lessons of CW, from WWI, WWII and the Iran-Iraq War. On the battlefield, CW created panic, fear, disorder, reduced effectiveness and created misery, but despite massive use, it created a tiny fraction of the casualties created by small arms, machineguns, mines and artiiary.
Only when nerve agents were used, did mass casualty events happen, and then, the majority of victims, were civillians, who did exactly the "right thing" to take shelter from bombs and artillary, but the wrong thing to do to take shelter from Nerve Agents.
It's the Al Nusra Front that "worries" me in regards to CW in that region. they have sarin.
"Turkish police seizes 2 kg of sarin gas from Al-Nusra militants"
http://www.voltairenet.org/article178710.html
You can't win a war with 2 kg of sarin gas. Not unless people are just willing to roll over.
Voltaire dot net is interesting. I can tell the difference between that and infowars, the larouche site and others.
I was wondering if Al Nusra seized a Syrian army chemical weapons depot. Not finding too much after 5 or 10 minutes of searching.
I thought Kerry had got all that stuff anyway.
Still looking but if anyone has anything I would appreciate it.
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A SVBIED with chlorine might not be militarily effective in the strictest sense. Most of it it would be burned off in the blast. Yet they ISIS uses the tactic and they continue to use the tactic.
All you need is one survivor who was appreciable affected by the chlorine and was less combat effective. Fear does the rest.
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"'Al-Qaeda and Al-Nusra in Syria may have significant amounts of sarin'"
http://rt.com/op-edge/syria-rebels-have-sarin-980/
Not sure how much to trust RT. sure everything needs to be checked. but if it appears in RT what% of stories are worth spending the time to check.
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