Alwaght - The ISIS Takfiri terrorists had used toxic chemical
arms to prevent the advance of Iraqi forces on the newly-liberated city of
Tikrit in northern Iraq.
Chemical materials, including chlorine gas and ammonium nitrate,
were found in the explosive devices planted by ISIS terrorists on roads and
inside houses in Tikirit to be used against the Iraqi troops and volunteer
forces battling to liberate the northern strategic city.
The same explosives were also found in car bombs used against
government forces as well as Shia and Sunni volunteer forces, who managed to
retake control of Tikrit from the ISIS last month.
Chlorine, an industrial chemical, can suffocate its victims to
death when used as a weapon.
Kamel Amin, spokesman for Iraq’s Human Rights Ministry,
expressed concern about the use of banned weapons by the ISIS extremists.
“ISIS has no morals
in war or commitment to international conventions; therefore, we could expect
anything from the terrorist group. They use anything they have against
civilians,” Amin added.
A team of reporters visited one of ISIS’s former strongholds
in Tikrit, which was found laden with bags of ammonium nitrate – a chemical
which will create highly explosive mixtures that
are particularly suitable for car bombs when mixed with various
other chemicals.
Tikrit was seized by ISIS in June last year. The city’s
recapture is crucial for the Iraqi army in its quest to take control of the
country’s second-largest city, Mosul.
Warnings over ISIS chemical weapons usage
The recent discovery of ISIS’s chemical stash in Tikrit comes
weeks after the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) reported
that the terrorist group had used chlorine gas in their explosive devices
against the Peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq in January.
Iraqi officials and Kurds fighting in Syria have given similar
reports about the use of chemical weapons by ISIS terrorists.
In October 2014, Iraqi officials said ISIS terrorists might have
used chlorine-filled cylinders during fighting in late September that year in
the towns of Balad and Duluiya.
ISIS started its campaign of terror in Iraq in early June 2014.
The heavily-armed militants took control of the country’s northern city of
Mosul before sweeping through parts of the country’s Sunni Arab
heartland.
Iraqi soldiers, police units, Kurdish forces, Shia volunteers
and Sunni tribesmen have succeeded in driving the ISIS terrorists out of some
areas in Iraq.
