Evidence is mounting that IS could be both manufacturing and using chemical weapons in Syria and Iraq. Months of reports by Kur dish forces fighting the so-called Islamic State sparked the start of an investigation by the US and a United Nations probe earlier this year.
No findings have been announced by either group but an anonymous UN official has told the BBC that at least four attacks using powdered mustard agents have been documented on both sides of the Syria-Iraq border. “We assess that they have an active chemical weapons little research cell that they're working on to try and get better at it,“ the official said. Intelligence analysts have also suggested that IS may be using stockpiles found in Syria and Iraq during the group's rampage last year, as the group gained territory to establish its self-declared Caliphate.
But any caches in Iraq are deemed unlikely to have gone undetected in the US military's decade-long military campaign in the country , and Syria was forced to give up its chemical weapons under the threat of air strikes two years ago. A UN-backed deal that saw the Syrian government hand over 1,180 tonnes of de clared toxic agents and chemicals to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) by June 2014. Kurdish fighters in both Iraq and Syria have reported the alleged use of chemical weapons by IS. Last month, the US National Security Council said Washington was taking allegations of IS using chemical weapons “very seriously“ and seeking more information.
Zawahiri accuses Baghdadi of sedition
In his first direct attack on the Islamic State, al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has accused the terror group's supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of “sedition“ and dismissed his claim of being the leader of all Muslims worldwide. Zawahiri, the Egyptian doctor who replaced Osama bin Laden as the head of al-Qaida four years ago, in a new 45 minute-long audio message has argued that the so-called “caliphate“ is illegitimate. Instead of targeting the US, Zawahiri's ire is directed at Baghdadi.“Everyone was surprised“ by Baghdadi's declaration anointing himself the fourth caliph in the Islamic history, Zawahiri remarks, saying Baghdadi had announced this “without consulting the Muslims“.
