BAGHDAD (AP) – The Kurdish government in Iraq says it has evidence examined by an independent laboratory confirming that the Islamic State group used chemical weapons against peshmerga fighters.
A statement Saturday from the Kurdistan Region Security Council claimed that the purported chemical weapon attack involved chlorine gas used in a Jan. 23 suicide car bomb attack in northern Iraq.
It said the alleged attack took place on a road between Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, and the Syrian border, as peshmerga forces fought to seize a vital supply line used by the Sunni militants. The Kurds say samples were analyzed by an unnamed lab in an unnamed coalition partner nation, which found chlorine traces.
The Islamic State group has been suspected of using chlorine in previous attacks in Iraq and Syria.
