Islamic State militants have used
chlorine as a weapon and are recruiting highly trained technicians in a
serious bid to develop chemical weapons, Australia’s Foreign Minister
Julie Bishop warned.
Smoke rises after what activists said were clashes with Islamic State fighters in Soran Azaz, Aleppo countryside June 1, 2015. Picture taken June 1, 2015.
In a speech to an international forum of
nations that works to fight the spread of such weapons, Bishop said the
rise of militant groups such as ISIS, also known as Daish, posed “one
of the gravest security threats we face today.”
“Apart from some crude and small scale
endeavors, the conventional wisdom has been that the terrorist intention
to acquire and weaponize chemical agents has been largely
aspirational,” Bishop told a meeting of the Australia Group in Perth.
The speech on Friday was posted online.
“The use of chlorine by Daish, and its
recruitment of highly technically trained professionals, including from
the West, have revealed far more serious efforts in chemical weapons
development,” she said.
“Daish is likely to have amongst its
tens of thousands of recruits the technical expertise necessary to
further refine precursor materials and build chemical weapons,” Bishop
said.
The comments follow allegations by Iraqi
Kurdish authorities that they have evidence that ISIS used chlorine gas
against their peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq in January.
The Kurdish allegations that soil and
clothing samples taken after an ISIS car bombing attempt contained
levels of chlorine couldn't be independently confirmed.
Chlorine is a choking agent whose use as
a chemical weapon dates back to World War One. It is banned under the
1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, which prohibits all use of toxic
agents on the battlefield.
The Organization for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons has been investigating allegations of dozens of recent
chlorine gas attacks in Syrian villages, but it is being refused access
to the sites by President Bashar al-Assad's government.
Source: Thanh Nien News