Pentagon confirms ISIL tried to use mustard gas on United States troops
- by Leah Brady
- in Worldwide
- — Sep 29, 2016
We call on the worldwide community to maintain further their support for the sheltering and return of IDPs, especially, with the forthcoming battle to fully liberate Nineveh and the anticipated increase of displaced persons, he said.
However, there are concerns that not enough planning has been done for how to manage the city, which is Iraq's second-largest, if and when ISIL is expelled.
Almost 5,000 USA troops are now on the ground in Iraq and "hundreds" of those forces are located at the base, the official said.
But the attack, he added, was a "concerning development".
ISIL overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes and training have since retaken significant ground, including the cities of Tikrit , Ramadi and Fallujah .
The use of chemical weapons on US forces, however ineffectual, raised ominous echoes of the ultimately false rationale cited by the George W. Bush administration for invading and occupying Iraq from 2003 to 2011. Experts say it's all in your head Senators challenge status quo on Saudi arms sales Pentagon confirms ISIS tried to attack United States troops with mustard agent MORE (R-Ariz.) called the attack "concerning".
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No-one was hurt in Tuesday, September 22's attack on the Qayyarah air base near the IS stronghold of Mosul.
No U.S. troops were hurt or have displayed symptoms of exposure to a mustard agent, the official added. "Hundreds of USA and coalition forces have massed there in the past several months in anticipation of the Mosul fight".
Rocket fragments have been sent to a laboratory for further testing, officials said.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, who testified alongside Carter, said early assessments have shown the chemical to be a "sulfur mustard blister agent".
The official called the potential chemical weapons attack "not surprising", and in line with the things ISIS has been doing to try to "harass us and frighten us".
The spokesman for the USA -led coalition against the Islamic State, Col. John Dorrian, said the coalition carried out "a very successful strike that eliminated a significant number of fighters who were trying to flee toward Hawija", to the east of Shirqat, which is under the control of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. "We're very anxious that we won't be able to prepare in time" for the Mosul battle, she said in a statement.
