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                Kurdish Official: IS Used Chlorine in 3 Attacks

   by VOA News

   A Kurdish military official said on Monday he had evidence Islamic
   State militants have used chlorine as a chemical weapon against
   peshmerga forces three times in northern Iraq.

   General Aziz Waisi, who said his forces were exposed to the chemical,
   said the insurgents had used chlorine in a December attack in the
   Sinjar area and in two others in January west of Mosul.

   The two earlier purported chemical weapon assaults reportedly resemble
   one claimed Saturday by Kurdish officials who say an independent
   laboratory concluded the militants used chlorine gas against its
   peshmerga forces in a January 23 truck suicide attack. However, their
   claims were not immediately verified by international authorities.

   Iraqi officials and Kurds fighting in Syria have made similar
   allegations about the militants using the low-grade chemical weapons
   against them. The Islamic State group, which controls a third of Syria
   and Iraq in its self-declared caliphate, has not commented on the
   claims.

   General Wesi, in charge of a Kurdish special forces brigade, told
   journalists Monday that authorities declined to immediately discuss the
   attacks when they happened out of fears of causing a panic.

   Kurdish officials have offered footage of the aftermath of a December
   26 attack, which shows fighters coughing and pouring water over their
   heads after a suicide truck bombing that authorities say wounded some
   60 men.

   Captain Mohammad Sewdin, who was leading the Kurdish special forces
   unit targeted in the December attack, told the Associated Press he was
   temporarily blinded for six hours after the attack and coughed up
   blood. He and others he said were hospitalized.

   On Saturday, the Kurdistan Region Security Council offered video and
   lab results it said proved the Islamic State group used chlorine in a
   January 23 suicide truck bomb.

   There has been no independent confirmation of any of the Kurds' claims.
   Bosnia arms donation
   Meanwhile, Bosnia has donated more than 550 tons of surplus arms and
   ammunition to Iraq as part of its involvement in the U.S.-led coalition
   against Islamic State militants, the Balkan country's defense minister
   said on Monday.
   The donation, made on request from the United States, comprises arms
   and ammunition produced decades ago, when Bosnia was part of the
   now-defunct Yugoslav federation, Minister Zekerijah Osmic told
   reporters. He did not rule out similar donations in the future.
   Under its NATO and U.S.-sponsored defense reforms, Bosnia has to
   offload more than 16,500 tons of ammunition and more than 40,000 pieces
   of weaponry, a surplus left over after its 1992-95 war in which more
   than 100,000 people died.
   Bosnia is not in the NATO alliance but hopes to join.
   A lot of the surplus arms, kept in warehouses often close to human
   settlements, are becoming increasingly rusty and may pose a security
   risk for citizens, Osmic said.

   Some material for this report came from AP and Reuters.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/kurds-iraq-chlorine/2681667.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/kurds-iraq-chlorine/2681667.html