Following reports of a possible
mustard agent attack on US troops south of Mosul on Tuesday and confirmed chemical weapons attacks on Kurdish forces in the past, there are also concerns that IS might resort to such tactics in its defence of the city.
A group of US forces inspected the fragments afterwards and took a small sample of a suspicious "tar-like, black, oily" substance, which initially tested positive for
mustard agent but then tested negative in a subsequent examination, the official said.
The IS has fired a small rocket at a military base that hosts hundreds of US troops near Mosul, with the shell testing positive "for a
mustard agent." None of the soldiers showed symptoms of poisoning.
When Libya joined the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2004, the Gaddafi government declared a host of material it held in its chemical arsenal, including a vast store of bulk sulphur
mustard agent. After Gaddafi's ouster, the new government came across additional chemical weapons, mostly artillery and bombs filled with mustard gas, which were then reported to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a global watchdog.
The jihadist group fired rockets suspected of carrying a
mustard agent last month from Bashir on Taza Khurmatu, another town in the northern province of Kirkuk.
Army began destroying the nation's largest remaining stockpile of chemical weapons Wednesday, using explosives to rip open a container of
mustard agent inside a sealed chamber and then flooding it with another chemical to neutralize it.
The Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado contain a large repository of
mustard agent shells.
The arsenal included hundreds of bombs and artillery rounds filled with deadly
mustard agent dating back to the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.
In the case of
mustard agent, damage occurs within one to two minutes of
Signs and symptoms of exposure to a
mustard agent can include redness and blistering of the skin, eye irritation, rhinorrhea, hoarseness, shortness of breath, and (rarely) diarrhea and abdominal discomfort.
The chemical weapons which are left to be disposed include a stockpile of
mustard agent in Pueblo., Colo., and a mixed inventory of mustard and nerve agents at Kentucky's Blue Grass Army Depot.
The US officials alleged that chemical weapons, shells, filled with highly-toxic
mustard agent, had been custom-designed and produced in Iran for Al Qathafi's dictatorial regime.
mustard agent - a toxic war gas with sulfide based compounds that raises blisters and attacks the eyes and lungs; there is no known antidote