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– On the heels of reports that ISIS militants are learning to fly fighter jets, Iraqi officials say the group has also used chemical weapons—specifically, chlorine gas. Eleven Iraqi police officers were hospitalized on Sept. 15 after being poisoned by the stuff, according to doctors, and the officers say ISIS was to blame. An Iraqi defense official has confirmed the case, the Washington Post reports. Iraqi security forces have reported two other such attacks, though the details are hazy, the Post notes. Meanwhile, a clinic in Kobani, Syria, received patients suffering from breathing trouble and blisters following the sound of an explosion Tuesday night, the Guardian reports. "Some had red patches and blisters on their skins, others had difficulties breathing and others were vomiting, with painful throats, and others with burning eyes and noses. There was one patient ... all his body was covered in red patches and blisters," says a doctor, who believes a chemical other than chlorine was used in this case. Though chemical weapons have recently been used in Syria, these instances appear to be the first confirmed use of chlorine gas in Iraq in years, the Post reports. The US is investigating the case in Iraq, the BBC reports. All eleven of the officers were discharged from the hospital the next morning.
Dizzy, vomiting and struggling to breathe, 11 Iraqi police officers were rushed to a government hospital 50 miles north of the capital last month. The diagnosis: poisoning by chlorine gas. The perpetrators, according to the officers: Islamic State extremists. 
  
 The chlorine attack appears to be the first confirmed use of chemical weapons by the Islamic State on the battlefield. An Iraqi Defense Ministry official corroborated the events, and doctors said survivors’ symptoms were consistent with chlorine poisoning. 
  
 Iraqi forces say two other crude chlorine attacks have occurred since the extremists seized vast tracts of Iraqi territory this summer, but details on those incidents remain sketchy. The reported assaults all raise concerns that the militants are attempting to hone their chemical weapons capabilities as they push to control more ground. 
  
 The presence of a large former Iraqi chemical weapons production plant in territory seized by the Islamic State has compounded those fears, although officials and chemical weapons experts say the 2,500 degraded rockets filled with nerve agents that remain there are unlikely to be fit for use. Weapons inspectors sealed them off with concrete in a bunker more than 20 years ago. 
  
 The Islamic State’s reported chlorine attacks appear to have been largely ineffectual. The attack on the police officers last month is the only one officially documented. 
  
 Lt. Khairallah al-Jabbouri, left, and Dr. Hussam Salim, a physician who treated him, after his exposure to chemical weapons, with medical files of the victims. (Loveday Morris/TWP) 
  
 Chlorine, a common component in industry, is sold legally, but its use as a weapon violates the Chemical Weapons Convention. It was widely employed in trench warfare during World War I, including infamously at Ypres in Belgium, where German forces dispersed more than 160 tons of chlorine into the breeze, killing thousands of French and Allied soldiers. 
  
 The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said last month that chlorine gas has been used “systematically” as a weapon in villages in northern Syria. The U.S. government has blamed those attacks on the Syrian government. But it has been years since the chemical has been used in fighting in Iraq. 
  
 ‘It was a strange explosion’ 
  
 It was 4:20 p.m. on Sept. 15 when the 11 police officers were rushed into the hospital emergency room in Balad. Some struggled to stand; tears streamed from their eyes. 
  
 “They were panicked; we were panicked,” said Kasim Hatim, the hospital’s director. “We initially thought it might be a more serious gas, a nerve gas or an organophosphate.” 
  
 The men had been brought in from the front lines of the nearby town of Duluiyah. Tucked into a bend of the Tigris River, the town had been under heavy assault for days, according to the accounts of three survivors. Islamic State fighters had taken territory to the north, cutting the only direct land access to the river town, and had blown up the last bridge into the town. 
  
 The police officers, all members of the Sunni Jabbour tribe, which has turned against the Islamic State, were guarding a line in the town’s north. After an exchange of fire, they said, they were surprised to see Islamic State fighters retreating from their position about 150 yards away. 
  
 Suddenly there was a boom in the area the extremists had just vacated, said Lt. Khairalla al-Jabbouri, 31, one of the survivors. “It was a strange explosion. We saw a yellow smoke in the sky,” he said. The wind carried the fog toward their lines. The men say it hung close to the ground, consistent with the properties of chlorine gas, which is heavier than air. 
  
 “I felt suffocated,” Jabbouri recalled. “I was throwing up and couldn’t breathe.” 
  
 Another officer, Ammer Jassim Mohammed, 31, who suffers from asthma, said he passed out within minutes. 
  
 The men were taken to a small clinic in Duluiyah, before being transferred by boat to the larger hospital in Balad, where they were treated with oxygen and hydrocortisone, an anti-inflammatory medication, until the symptoms began to subside. They were all discharged the following morning. 
  
 The four physicians who treated them said there was no question that chlorine gas was to blame. 
  
 One physician on the team, Hassanain Mohammed, had treated similar cases­ before. In 2006 and 2007, al-Qaeda in Iraq, a group that later morphed into the Islamic State, carried out a string of chlorine bombings in the country. 
  
 Mohammed was on duty at a Baghdad hospital one day during that period when dozens of victims were brought in after a bombing in Taji district, just north of the capital, in which insurgents had packed a truck with explosives and two one-ton chlorine tanks. 
  
 There have been no confirmed accounts of the use of chlorine gas as a weapon in Iraq for several years. 
  
 An Iraqi Defense Ministry official confirmed this week that a bomb rigged with chlorine canisters was used in the Duluiyah attack. 
  
 “They use it just to create terror,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to provide the information publicly. “But of course we are very concerned.” 
  
 In a statement, the Defense Ministry confirmed that the Islamic State has used the gas in a “primitive and ineffective way” near water-treatment plants where it has gained access to chlorine, as well as in roadside bomb attacks. It did not specify the locations of the attacks, but there are several water plants near Duluiyah on territory controlled by the Islamic State. 
  
 The extremist group aims to dent “the morale of the Iraqi people in general and our armed forces­ in particular,” the statement said. 
  
 It said that soldiers should be provided with gas masks as a precaution and that volunteers and civilians should place a dampened cloth over the nose and mouth to protect themselves during any attacks. 
  
 The defense official said he did not have details of any incidents other than the Sept. 15 attack, while a U.S. official said he had no reports of the use of chlorine by the Islamic State. 
  
 “We aren’t aware of any chlorine attacks against the [Iraqi security forces­] but would refer you to the Iraqi government to see what they might have,” said Army Maj. Curtis Kellogg, a spokesman for Florida-based U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for U.S. security interests in the Middle East. 
  
 An inexact weapon 
  
 Chlorine bombs are an easy-to-create but inexact weapon, experts say. All that is needed is a small explosive charge to rupture containers filled with the substance. 
  
 “It’s difficult to deliver on target in combat situations,” said Jean Pascal Zanders, an independent researcher who specializes in chemical and biological weapons and disarmament. “Chlorine dissipates fast unless someone is able to concentrate it in a confined area.” 
  
 Fighters in Duluiyah say it was not the only time chlorine has been used against them. Another attack this month caused minor injuries, and the fighters were treated locally, police officials said. 
  
 Immediately after the September attack, the Balad hospital put in orders for thousands of doses of atropine, used to treat nerve-gas exposure, Hatim said. A thousand have been shipped across the river to Duluiyah. 
  
 Soldiers who escaped an Islamic State rout of a besieged army base in Saqlawiyah, where hundreds of soldiers were killed last month, also said chlorine gas was used there — though reports of where and how the gas was delivered varied and could not be confirmed. 
  
 While some officers said they believed artillery- or mortar-launched canisters fired by the attackers fell short of the base, others, who claimed to have remained in the installation for a longer period, said the canisters fell within its perimeter. Another claimed that the militants detonated chlorine-filled containers. 
  
 “It was chaos,” said Capt. Ahmed Hussein. He said he believed that gas canisters were fired into the camp but pointed out that the situation was highly confused. “I saw an explosion and smelled the smell; it was like bleach,” he said. “I was far enough away, but others were affected and were left behind.” 
  
 Ammar Toma, a member of parliament’s defense and security committee, said the panel had received photographs from officers of the projectiles used in the Saqlawiyah area. 
  
 “We aren’t sure chlorine was used,” he said. “But we believe it was either chlorine or another chemical.” 
  
 Mustafa Salim in Balad and Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report. ||||| Kurds battling Islamic State militants for control of Kobani fear the extremist group may have used an unidentified chemical weapon, according to officials and one of the few doctors still working in the besieged Syrian town. 
  
 Patients with blisters, burning eyes and breathing difficulties turned up at a clinic after a blast was heard on Tuesday evening, Dr Walat Omar said. He described the symptoms as abnormal and said he could not identify their cause, but suspected a chemical weapon. 
  
 “After a loud explosion [on Tuesday night], we received some patients with abnormal symptoms. They reported a bad smell which produced some kind of allergic reaction,” Omar said in a telephone interview that was periodically disrupted by heavy explosions. 
  
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Blisters on the body of a man in Kobani which Kurds fear may have been caused by Islamic State’s use of a chemical weapon. The Guardian is unable to ascertain the cause of the blisters. Photograph: Walat Omar 
  
 “Some had red patches and blisters on their skins, others had difficulties breathing and others were vomiting, with painful throats, and others with burning eyes and noses. There was one patient, all his body was covered in red patches and blisters.” 
  
 Islamic State (Isis) is thought to have obtained stocks of ageing but still potent chemical weapons when it seized Iraqi army bases where they were stored, the New York Times reported earlier this month. 
  
 In June, the group took control of a sprawling complex that had been the heart of Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons programme, Al-Muthanna State Establishment. There may also have been chemical weapons buried or abandoned elsewhere, that were not destroyed by US forces or the Iraqi military. 
  
 Stocks manufactured before 1991 are dirty, corroded and not always easy to identify or use, but can still cause serious injury. 
  
 Iraqi officials said 11 police officers were poisoned by chlorine gas last month, when Isis fighters used it to attack the Iraqi town of Duluiya. All the officers survived. 
  
 That attack was hundreds of miles from Kobani, near the Syrian border, where Omar said he feared eight civilians had been injured by some kind of chemical attack. 
  
 Intense fighting has made it impossible to get doctors the equipment they need to do definitive tests for the use of chemical weapons, but Omar said they displayed symptoms distinct from anything else he had treated in weeks of heavy battles. 
  
 He said he had ruled out chlorine gas or biological weapons, based on his medical training, but thought the injuries were caused by a chemical. Trained in Ukraine, he is originally from Kobani and returned there to work after seven years at medical school. 
  
 “This is the first time we have seen this kind of condition,” Omar said. “I have seen other strange conditions but nothing like this before.” 
  
 The opinions of chemical weapons experts consulted by the Guardian were divided after seening a series of pictures provided by Omar of a young man with large skin blisters and a severely swollen lip. 
  
 The pictures did not have any metadata to confirm the time and place they were taken, but had not been published on the internet before Omar provided them to a Kurdish journalist. 
  
 One expert with personal experience of treating mustard gas victims said that, although the blisters were not typical, the symptoms overall were consistent with a possible sulphur mustard poisoning. That could only be confirmed with a urine or blood test. 
  
 Other experts said that while the symptoms could be consistent with exposure to a chemical agent, they were somewhat unusual and other medical conditions, such as a severe allergic reaction, would need to be ruled out. 
  
 Senior Kurdish politicians said they feared a chemical attack, and had asked for testing kits to seek confirmation. 
  
 “Many people were injured … and showed symptoms of chemical weapons use: choking, breathing difficulties, bleeding eyes, burning skin etc,” said Idris Nassan, deputy foreign minister of the Kobani administration. “Some of the doctors say that it might be phosphorus or poison gas of some kind, but the investigation is ongoing, we don’t know for sure.” 
  
 It is possible that Isis fighters could mistake some chemical munitions for ordinary weapons and use them without being aware of what they are handling. It could also be harder to evaluate the impact of attacks using partially degraded weapons, one expert said. 
  
 “Various factors might contribute to far milder symptoms than those normally associated with mustard agent exposure under combat conditions. These could include impure or degraded agent, short-term exposure, or exposure to a limited volume of agent,” said Jean-Pascal Zanders, a former analyst with the chemical and biological warfare project at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. 
  
 The bomb believed to have caused the injuries treated by Omar exploded at about 10pm in west Kobani, near a hospital. Omar said he thought Isis may have targeted the medical centre to try to undermine morale, although it was not being used and none of the forces defending the city were in the area. 
  
 “Some fighters were further away, they complained about their eyes watering and burning, and pain in their nose,” he said, estimating that around 20 of them were affected but needed only basic first aid. 
  
 Regarding civilians who were closer to the blast, Omar said he was treating affected patients with oxygen, the steroid cortisone and other drugs until about 2.30am, as well as fielding calls from people who did not want to leave their homes. 
  
 The three most seriously injured patients, who ranged in age from 17 to over 40, stayed in the clinic overnight for observation and Omar was trying to arrange for their evacuation to Turkey for further treatment. 
  
 One Kurdish activist said Kobani may have been hit by teargas for the first time, perhaps drifting across from a Turkish border village where police had been using it for weeks to break up crowds of demonstrators. It has not been deployed in the intense battles for Kobani and so would not be recognised by residents, although demonstrations nearest to the border have almost all been in daylight hours, while Omar reported victims arriving well after nightfall. 
  
 Additional reporting by Constanze Letsch ||||| Image caption Chemical weapons are thought to have been widely used in Syria 
  
 The United States is to investigate whether militant group Islamic State (IS) used chemical weapons in Iraq, Secretary of State John Kerry has said. 
  
 Mr Kerry said he was looking into "extremely serious" allegations that IS attacked Iraqi police officers with chlorine gas last month. 
  
 Speaking on a visit to South Korea, Mr Kerry said the claims were unconfirmed. 
  
 In September, France, Germany and the UK said it was "probable" IS had chlorine gas. 
  
 Mr Kerry said "the use of any chemical weapon is an abhorrent act; it is against international law". 
  
 Choking agent 
  
 It is unlikely that IS possesses serious chemical weapons such as Sarin, VX gas or mustard gas. 
  
 But persistent reports from Iraq say they have been using chlorine gas, which is classed as "a choking agent". 
  
 Though not as deadly as nerve agents, if inhaled in sufficient quantities it can burn victims' lungs as well as generating fear, panic and a high number of casualties. 
  
 The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) says use of the gas "is a CWC-defined use of chemical weapons." 
  
 CWC stands for the Chemical Weapons Convention, a treaty banning chemical weapons that the many countries have signed. 
  
 It is widely believed that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons on a large scale. 
  
 To avert the threat of retaliatory Western air strikes, Russia brokered a chemical weapons disarmament deal in January. 
  
 Nevertheless Mr Assad is alleged to have used chlorine gas as recently as August. |||||
Skriv en artikel baserad på denna sammanfattning: – I hälarna på rapporter om att ISIS militanter lär sig flyga stridsflygplan, irakiska tjänstemän säger att gruppen också har använt kemiska vapen – specifikt klorgas. Elva irakiska poliser lades in på sjukhus den 15 september efter att ha blivit förgiftade av grejerna, enligt läkare, och officerarna säger att ISIS var skulden. En irakisk försvarstjänsteman har bekräftat fallet, Washington Post rapporterar. Irakiska säkerhetsstyrkor har rapporterat två andra sådana attacker, även om detaljerna är oklara, Post anteckningar. Samtidigt fick en klinik i Kobani i Syrien patienter som led av andningsbesvär och blåsor efter ljudet av en explosion tisdag kväll, rapporterar Guardian. "En del hade röda fläckar och blåsor på huden, andra hade svårt att andas och andra kräktes, med smärtsamma halsar, och andra med brännande ögon och näsor. Det fanns en patient... hela hans kropp var täckt av röda fläckar och blåsor, säger en läkare, som tror att en annan kemikalie än klor användes i detta fall. Även om kemiska vapen nyligen har använts i Syrien, verkar dessa fall vara den första bekräftade användningen av klorgas i Irak på flera år, rapporterar tidningen Post. USA utreder fallet i Irak, rapporterar BBC. Alla elva officerarna skrevs ut från sjukhuset följande morgon.
Write an article based on this summary: – On the heels of reports that ISIS militants learn to fly fighter aircraft, Iraqi officials say the group has also used chemical weapons – specifically chlorine gas. Eleven Iraqi policemen were hospitalized on 15 September after being poisoned by the stuff, according to doctors, and the officers say ISIS was to blame. An Iraqi defense official has confirmed the case, the Washington Post reports. Iraqi security forces have reported two other such attacks, although the details are unclear, Post notes. At the same time, a clinic in Kobani, Syria, received patients suffering from respiratory problems and blisters following the sound of an explosion Tuesday night, reports the Guardian. "Some had red spots and blisters on their skin, others had difficulty breathing and others vomited, with painful throats, and others with burning eyes and noses. There was one patient... his entire body was covered in red spots and blisters, says a doctor, who believes that a chemical other than chlorine was used in this case. Although chemical weapons have recently been used in Syria, these cases appear to be the first confirmed use of chlorine gas in Iraq in years, reports Post newspaper. The United States is investigating the case in Iraq, reports the BBC. All eleven officers were discharged from the hospital the following morning.
Dizzy, kräkningar och kamp för att andas, elva irakiska poliser fördes till ett statligt sjukhus 8 mil norr om huvudstaden förra månaden. Diagnosen: förgiftning av klorgas. Gärningsmännen, enligt officerarna: Islamiska statens extremister. Klorattacken verkar vara den första bekräftade användningen av kemiska vapen av Islamiska staten på slagfältet. En tjänsteman från Iraks försvarsministerium bekräftade händelserna, och läkare sade att de överlevandes symptom stämde överens med klorförgiftning. Irakiska styrkor säger att två andra grova klorattacker har inträffat sedan extremisterna beslagtog stora områden i Irak i sommar, men detaljer om dessa incidenter är fortfarande oklara. De rapporterade attackerna väcker alla farhågor om att militanterna försöker finslipa sina kemiska vapens kapacitet när de trycker för att kontrollera mer mark. Förekomsten av en stor före detta irakisk fabrik för tillverkning av kemiska vapen på territorium som beslagtagits av den islamiska staten har förvärrat dessa farhågor, även om tjänstemän och experter på kemiska vapen säger att de 2 500 nedbrutna raketer fyllda med nervmedel som fortfarande finns där sannolikt inte är lämpliga att använda. Vapeninspektörerna förseglade dem med betong i en bunker för mer än 20 år sedan. Den islamiska statens rapporterade klorattacker tycks i stort sett ha varit ineffektiva. Attacken på poliserna förra månaden är den enda officiellt dokumenterade. Löjtnant Khairallah al-Jabbouri, lämnade, och Dr Hussam Salim, en läkare som behandlade honom, efter hans exponering för kemiska vapen, med medicinska filer över offren. (Loveday Morris/TWP) Klor, en vanlig komponent inom industrin, säljs lagligt, men dess användning som vapen bryter mot konventionen om kemiska vapen. Den var flitigt anlitad i skyttegravskrigföring under första världskriget, bland annat ökänt vid Ypres i Belgien, där tyska styrkor skingrade mer än 160 ton klor i brisen, varvid tusentals franska och allierade soldater dödades. Organisationen för förbud mot kemiska vapen sade förra månaden att klorgas har använts ”systematiskt” som vapen i byar i norra Syrien. USA:s regering har skyllt dessa attacker på den syriska regeringen. Men det är år sedan kemikalien har använts i stridigheter i Irak. ”Det var en märklig explosion” Klockan var 16.20 den 15 september när de 11 poliserna rusade in på sjukhusets akutmottagning i Balad. Somliga kämpade för att stå; tårar strömmade från deras ögon. — De blevo panikslagna; vi blevo panikslagna, sade Kasim Hatim, sjukhusets föreståndare. ”Vi trodde till en början att det kunde vara en allvarligare gas, en nervgas eller ett organofosfat.” Männen hade förts in från frontlinjerna i den närbelägna staden Duluiyah. Staden, som var inbäddad i en krök av floden Tigris, hade varit utsatt för ett hårt angrepp i flera dagar, enligt redogörelser för tre överlevande. Islamiska statskämpar hade tagit territorium i norr, skär den enda direkta land tillgång till floden staden, och hade sprängt den sista bron in i staden. Poliserna, alla medlemmar av Sunni Jabbour-stammen, som har vänt sig mot Islamiska staten, vaktade en linje i stadens norra del. Efter ett utbyte av eld, sade de, de var förvånade över att se Islamiska Stat kämpar retirerar från sin position ca 150 meter bort. Plötsligt var det en högkonjunktur i området extremisterna hade just lämnat, sade löjtnant Khairalla al-Jabbouri, 31, en av de överlevande. — Det var en besynnerlig explosion. Vi sågo en gul rök i skyn, sade han. Vinden förde dimman mot deras linjer. Männen säger att den hängde nära marken, vilket överensstämmer med klorgasens egenskaper, som är tyngre än luften. — Jag kände mig kvävd, erinrade sig Jabbouri. — Jag kräktes och kunde inte andas. sade en annan officer, Ammer Jassim Mohammed, 31, som lider av astma, att han svimmade inom några minuter. Männen fördes till en liten klinik i Duluiyah, innan de förflyttades med båt till det större sjukhuset i Balad, där de behandlades med syre och hydrokortison, en antiinflammatorisk medicin, tills symtomen började avta. De blev alla utskrivna följande morgon. De fyra läkare som behandlade dem sade att det inte var något tvivel om att klorgas var skulden. En läkare i teamet, Hassanain Mohammed, hade behandlat liknande fall tidigare. Under 2006 och 2007 genomförde al-Qaida i Irak, en grupp som senare förvandlades till Islamiska staten, en rad klorbombningar i landet. Mohammed var i tjänst på ett sjukhus i Bagdad en dag under den period då dussintals offer togs in efter ett bombdåd i Tajidistriktet, strax norr om huvudstaden, där upprorsmän hade packat en lastbil med sprängämnen och två etttons klortankar. Det har inte funnits några bekräftade redogörelser för användningen av klorgas som vapen i Irak på flera år. En tjänsteman från Iraks försvarsministerium bekräftade denna vecka att en bomb riggad med klorbehållare användes i Duluiyah-attacken. “De använder det bara för att skapa terror,” sade tjänstemannen, som talade på villkor av anonymitet eftersom han inte var behörig att tillhandahålla informationen offentligt. “Men naturligtvis är vi mycket oroade.” I ett uttalande, bekräftade försvarsministeriet att Islamiska staten har använt gasen på ett “primitivt och ineffektivt sätt” nära vattenreningsanläggningar där det har fått tillgång till klor, samt i väg bombattacker. Den specificerade inte platserna för attackerna, men det finns flera vattenväxter nära Duluiyah på territorium som kontrolleras av Islamiska staten. Den extremistiska gruppen har som mål att buckla på ”moralen hos det irakiska folket i allmänhet och våra väpnade styrkor i synnerhet”, sades det i uttalandet. Det sades att soldater skulle förses med gasmasker som en försiktighetsåtgärd och att frivilliga och civila skulle placera en dämpad duk över näsa och mun för att skydda sig själva vid eventuella attacker. Försvarstjänsteman sade att han inte hade några detaljer om några andra incidenter än den 15 september attacken, medan en amerikansk tjänsteman sade att han inte hade några rapporter om användningen av klor av Islamiska staten. “Vi är inte medvetna om några klor attacker mot [Iraki säkerhetsstyrkor-] men skulle hänvisa dig till den irakiska regeringen för att se vad de kan ha,” sade Army Maj Curtis Kellogg, en talesman för Florida-baserade amerikanska centralkommandot, som är ansvarig för amerikanska säkerhetsintressen i Mellanöstern. Ett inexakt vapen Klorbomber är ett lättskapat men oexakt vapen, säger experter. Allt som behövs är en liten sprängladdning för att spräcka behållare fyllda med ämnet. – Det är svårt att leverera på mål i stridssituationer, säger Jean Pascal Zanders, en oberoende forskare som är specialiserad på kemiska och biologiska vapen och nedrustning. “Chlorine försvinner snabbt om inte någon kan koncentrera det i ett begränsat område.” Fighters i Duluiyah säger att det inte var den enda gången klor har använts mot dem. En annan attack denna månad orsakade mindre skador, och de stridande behandlades lokalt, sade polistjänstemännen. Omedelbart efter septemberattacken beställde Balads sjukhus tusentals doser atropin, som användes för att behandla nervgasexponering, sade Hatim. Tusen har skeppats över floden till Duluiyah. Soldater som undkom en islamisk statsrutt från en belägrad armébas i Saqlawiyah, där hundratals soldater dödades förra månaden, sade också klorgas användes där — även om rapporter om var och hur gasen levererades varierade och kunde inte bekräftas. Medan några officerare sade att de trodde artilleri- eller granatkastar-avfyrade behållare avfyrade av angriparna inte nådde basen, andra, som påstod sig ha stannat kvar i installationen under en längre period, sade behållarna föll inom dess omkrets. En annan hävdade att militanterna detonerade klorfyllda behållare. — Det var kaos, sade kapten. Ahmed Hussein. Han sade att han trodde att gasbehållare avfyrades in i lägret men påpekade att situationen var mycket förvirrad. — Jag såg en explosion och luktade på lukten; det var som blekmedel, sade han. — Jag var tillräckligt långt borta, men andra drabbades och lämnades kvar. Ammar Toma, medlem av parlamentets försvars- och säkerhetskommitté, sade att panelen hade fått fotografier från officerare av de projektiler som användes i Saqlawiyah-området. — Vi är inte säkra på att klor användes, sade han. – Men vi tror att det var antingen klor eller en annan kemikalie. Mustafa Salim i Balad och Karen DeYoung i Washington bidrog till denna rapport. Kurder som bekämpar militanta islamiska stater för att kontrollera Kobani fruktar att extremistgruppen kan ha använt ett oidentifierat kemiskt vapen, enligt tjänstemän och en av de få läkare som fortfarande arbetar i den belägrade syriska staden. Patienter med blåsor, brännande ögon och andningssvårigheter dök upp på en klinik efter en blast hördes på tisdag kväll, sade Dr Walat Omar. Han beskrev symptomen som onormala och sade att han inte kunde identifiera deras orsak, men misstänkte ett kemiskt vapen. ”Efter en kraftig explosion [på tisdagskvällen] fick vi några patienter med onormala symtom. De rapporterade en dålig lukt som gav någon form av allergisk reaktion,” Omar sade i en telefonintervju som periodvis stördes av kraftiga explosioner. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Blister på kroppen av en man i Kobani som kurder fruktar kan ha orsakats av Islamiska statens användning av ett kemiskt vapen. Väktaren kan inte fastställa orsaken till blåsorna. Foto: Walat Omar ” Några hade röda fläckar och blåsor på huden, andra hade svårt att andas och andra kräktes, med smärtsamma halsar, och andra hade brännande ögon och näsor. Det fanns en patient, hela hans kropp var täckt av röda fläckar och blåsor. "Islamiska staten (Isis) tros ha fått lager av åldrande men fortfarande potenta kemiska vapen när den beslagtog irakiska armébaser där de förvarades, New York Times rapporterade tidigare denna månad. I juni tog gruppen kontroll över ett vidsträckt komplex som hade varit hjärtat i Saddam Husseins kemiska vapenprogram, Al-Muthanna State Etablering. Det kan också ha funnits kemiska vapen begravda eller övergivna någon annanstans, som inte förstördes av amerikanska styrkor eller den irakiska militären. Lager tillverkade före 1991 är smutsiga, korroderade och inte alltid lätta att identifiera eller använda, men kan ändå orsaka allvarliga skador. Irakiska tjänstemän sa att 11 poliser förgiftades av klorgas förra månaden, när Isis-stridskrafter använde den för att attackera den irakiska staden Duluiya. Alla officerare överlevde. Den attacken var hundratals kilometer från Kobani, nära den syriska gränsen, där Omar sade att han fruktade att åtta civila hade skadats av någon form av kemisk attack. Intensiva strider har gjort det omöjligt att få läkare den utrustning de behöver för att göra definitiva tester för användning av kemiska vapen, men Omar sade att de uppvisade symptom som skilde sig från allt annat han hade behandlat i veckor av tunga strider. Han sade att han hade uteslutit klorgas eller biologiska vapen, baserat på hans medicinska utbildning, men trodde att skadorna orsakades av en kemikalie. Utbildad i Ukraina är han ursprungligen från Kobani och återvände dit för att arbeta efter sju år på läkarlinjen. — Det här är första gången vi ha sett den här sortens tillstånd, sade Omar. “Jag har sett andra konstiga förhållanden men inget liknande tidigare.” De åsikter av kemiska vapen experter konsulterade av Guardian delades efter att ha sett en serie bilder som tillhandahålls av Omar av en ung man med stora hudblåsor och en kraftigt svullen läpp. Bilderna hade inga metadata för att bekräfta vilken tid och plats de togs, men hade inte publicerats på internet innan Omar gav dem till en kurdisk journalist. En expert med personlig erfarenhet av att behandla senapsgasoffer sade att även om blåsorna inte var typiska, stämde symptomen överlag överens med en eventuell svavelsenapsförgiftning. Det kunde bara bekräftas med urin eller blodprov. Andra experter sade att även om symptomen kunde överensstämma med exponering för ett kemiskt medel, de var något ovanliga och andra medicinska tillstånd, såsom en allvarlig allergisk reaktion, skulle behöva uteslutas. Senior kurdiska politiker sade att de fruktade en kemisk attack, och hade bett om testutrustning för att söka bekräftelse. “Många människor skadades ... och visade symtom på användning av kemiska vapen: kvävning, andningssvårigheter, blödande ögon, brännande hud etc”, sade Idris Nassan, vice utrikesminister i Kobani administration. – En del av läkarna säger att det kan vara fosfor eller giftgas av något slag, men utredningen pågår, vi vet inte säkert. Det är möjligt att Isis-kämpar kan missta en del kemisk ammunition för vanliga vapen och använda dem utan att vara medvetna om vad de hanterar. Det kan också vara svårare att utvärdera effekterna av attacker med delvis nedbrutna vapen, sade en expert. – Olika faktorer kan bidra till betydligt mildare symtom än de som normalt förknippas med exponering av senapsmedel under stridsförhållanden. Det kan handla om orent eller degraderat medel, kortvarig exponering eller exponering för en begränsad mängd av agens, säger Jean-Pascal Zanders, tidigare analytiker med projektet för kemisk och biologisk krigföring vid Stockholms internationella fredsforskningsinstitut. Bomben som tros ha orsakat skadorna som behandlades av Omar exploderade vid 22-tiden i västra Kobani, nära ett sjukhus. Omar sa att han trodde att Isis kan ha riktat in sig på vårdcentralen för att försöka underminera moralen, även om den inte användes och ingen av de styrkor som försvarade staden fanns i området. “Vissa kämpar var längre bort, de klagade över deras ögon vattning och brännande, och smärta i näsan,” sade han, uppskattar att runt 20 av dem var drabbade men behövde bara grundläggande första hjälpen. Angående civila som var närmare explosionen, Omar sade att han behandlade drabbade patienter med syre, steroid kortison och andra läkemedel fram till cirka 02.30, samt ringa samtal från människor som inte vill lämna sina hem. De tre mest allvarligt skadade patienterna, som varierade i ålder från 17 till över 40, stannade på kliniken över natten för observation och Omar försökte ordna med deras evakuering till Turkiet för ytterligare behandling. En kurdisk aktivist sade att Kobani kan ha drabbats av tårgas för första gången, kanske drivande över från en turkisk gränsby där polisen hade använt den i veckor för att bryta upp skaror av demonstranter. Den har inte satts in i de intensiva striderna om Kobani och skulle därför inte erkännas av invånarna, även om demonstrationer närmast gränsen nästan alla har varit i dagsljustimmar, medan Omar rapporterade att offer anlände långt efter skymningen. Ytterligare rapportering av Constanze Letsch <unk> Bildtext Kemiska vapen tros ha använts flitigt i Syrien USA är att undersöka om militant grupp Islamic State (IS) använde kemiska vapen i Irak, utrikesminister John Kerry har sagt. Kerry sa att han undersökte "extremt allvarliga" anklagelser om att IS attackerade irakiska poliser med klorgas förra månaden. När Kerry talade vid ett besök i Sydkorea sade han att påståendena var obekräftade. I september sade Frankrike, Tyskland och Storbritannien att det var "sannolikt" IS hade klorgas. Kerry sade att "användning av alla kemiska vapen är en avskyvärd handling; det strider mot internationell rätt". Kvävmedel Det är osannolikt att IS har allvarliga kemiska vapen som Sarin, VX-gas eller senapsgas. Men ihållande rapporter från Irak säger att de har använt klorgas, som klassas som "ett kvävmedel". Även om det inte är lika dödligt som nervgifter, kan det, om det inandas i tillräcklig mängd, bränna lungorna och skapa rädsla, panik och ett stort antal offer. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) säger att användningen av gasen "är en CWC-definierad användning av kemiska vapen." CWC står för konventionen om kemiska vapen, ett fördrag om förbud mot kemiska vapen som de många länderna har undertecknat. Man tror allmänt att Syriens president Bashar al-Assad använde kemiska vapen i stor skala. För att avvärja hotet om vedergällning mot västliga flyganfall lyckades Ryssland i januari förhandla fram ett avtal om nedrustning av kemiska vapen. Trots detta påstås Assad ha använt klorgas så sent som i augusti. Â°°
Dizzy, vomiting and fighting to breathe, eleven Iraqi policemen were taken to a state hospital 50 miles north of the capital last month. Diagnosis: poisoning of chlorine gas. The perpetrators, according to the officers: Islamic State extremists. The chlorine attack appears to be the first confirmed use of chemical weapons by the Islamic State on the battlefield. An official from the Iraqi Ministry of Defence confirmed the events, and doctors said the symptoms of the survivors were consistent with chlorine poisoning. Iraqi forces say that two other severe chlorine attacks have occurred since the extremists seized large areas of Iraq this summer, but details of these incidents are still unclear. The reported attacks raise all concerns that militants are trying to hone the capabilities of their chemical weapons as they press to control more land. The existence of a large former Iraqi chemical weapons manufacturing plant on territory seized by the Islamic State has exacerbated these concerns, although officials and experts on chemical weapons say that the 2,500 broken-down rockets filled with nerve agents still there are unlikely to be suitable for use. The weapons inspectors sealed them with concrete in a bunker more than 20 years ago. The reported chlorine attacks of the Islamic state appear to have been largely ineffective. The attack on the police officers last month is the only officially documented one. Lt. Khairallah al-Jabbouri, left, and Dr. Hussam Salim, a doctor who treated him, after his exposure to chemical weapons, with medical files of the victims. (Loveday Morris/TWP) Chlorine, a common component of industry, is legally sold, but its use as a weapon violates the Chemical Weapons Convention. It was frequently hired in trench warfare during World War I, including notoriously at Ypres, Belgium, where German forces dispersed more than 160 tons of chlorine in the breeze, killing thousands of French and Allied soldiers. The Chemical Weapons Ban Organisation said last month that chlorine gas has been used ‘systematically’ as a weapon in villages in northern Syria. The U.S. government has blamed these attacks on the Syrian government. But it is years since the chemical has been used in fighting in Iraq. “It was a strange explosion” It was 4:20 p.m. on 15 September when the 11 police officers rushed into the hospital emergency department in Balad. Some struggled to stand; tears flowed from their eyes. “They were panicking; we were panicking,” said Kasim Hatim, the hospital manager. “We initially believed that it could be a more serious gas, a nerve gas or an organophosphate.” The men had been brought in from the front lines of the nearby town of Duluiyah. The city, embedded in a bend of the Tigris River, had been under a heavy attack for several days, according to accounts of three survivors. Islamic state fighters had taken territory to the north, cutting the only direct land access to the river city, and had blasted the last bridge into the city. The policemen, all members of the Sunni Jabbour tribe, who have turned against the Islamic State, guarded a line in the northern part of the city. After an exchange of fire, they said, they were surprised to see Islamic State fighters retreat from their position about 150 meters away. Suddenly there was a boom in the area the extremists had just left," said Lieutenant Khairalla al-Jabbouri, 31, one of the survivors. “It was a strange explosion. We saw a yellow smoke in the sky, he said. The wind brought the fog towards their lines. The men say it hung near the ground, which is consistent with the properties of chlorine gas, which is heavier than the air. “I felt suffocated,” recalled Jabbouri. “I vomited and couldn’t breathe,” said another officer, Ammer Jassim Mohammed, 31, suffering from asthma, saying he fainted within minutes. The men were taken to a small clinic in Duluiyah, before being transferred by boat to the larger hospital in Balad, where they were treated with oxygen and hydrocortisone, an anti-inflammatory medicine, until symptoms began to subside. They were all discharged the following morning. The four doctors who treated them said that there was no doubt that chlorine gas was to blame. A doctor on the team, Hassanain Mohammed, had treated similar cases earlier. In 2006 and 2007, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, a group that later turned into the Islamic State, carried out a series of chlorine bombings in the country. Mohammed was on duty in a hospital in Baghdad one day during the period when dozens of victims were brought in after a bombing in Taji district, just north of the capital, where insurgents had packed a truck of explosives and two one-ton chlorine tanks. There have been no confirmed accounts of the use of chlorine gas as a weapon in Iraq for years. An official from the Iraqi Ministry of Defence confirmed this week that a bomb rigged with chlorine containers was used in the Duluiyah attack. “They only use it to create terror,” said the official, who spoke on terms of anonymity because he was not competent to provide the information publicly. “But of course we are very concerned.” In a statement, the Ministry of Defence confirmed that the Islamic State has used the gas in a “primitive and ineffective way” near water purification facilities where it has access to chlorine, as well as launching bomb attacks. It did not specify the locations of the attacks, but there are several aquatic plants near Duluiyah in territory controlled by the Islamic State. The extremist group aims to denigrate ‘the morale of the Iraqi people in general and our armed forces in particular’, the statement said. It was said that soldiers would be provided with gas masks as a precaution and that volunteers and civilians would place a subdued cloth over their nose and mouth to protect themselves in case of attacks. Defence official said he had no details of any incidents other than the September 15 attack, while a U.S. official said he had no reports of the use of chlorine by the Islamic State. “We’re not aware of any claw attacks on [Iraqi security forces-] but would refer you to the Iraqi government to see what they may have,” said Army Maj Curtis Kellogg, a spokesman for the Florida-based U.S. Central Command, who is responsible for U.S. security interests in the Middle East. An imprecise weapon Chlorine bombs are an easy-to-create but imprecise weapon, say experts. All it takes is a small explosive device to burst containers filled with the substance. “It is difficult to deliver on targets in combat situations,” says Jean Pascal Zanders, an independent researcher specialising in chemical and biological weapons and disarmament. “Chlorine disappears quickly unless someone can concentrate it in a limited area.” Fighters in Duluiyah say it was not the only time chlorine has been used against them. Another attack this month caused minor injuries, and the combatants were treated locally, police officials said. Immediately after the September attack, Balad Hospital ordered thousands of doses of atropine, which was used to treat nerve gas exposure, Hatim said. A thousand have been shipped across the river to Duluiyah. Soldiers who escaped an Islamic state route from a besieged army base in Saqlawiyah, where hundreds of soldiers were killed last month, also said chlorine gas was used there — although reports of where and how the gas was delivered varied and could not be confirmed. While some officers said they believed artillery or mortars-fired containers fired by the attackers did not reach the base, others, claiming to have remained in the installation for a longer period, said the containers fell within its perimeter. Another claimed that the militants detonated chlorine - filled containers. “It was chaos,” said the captain. Ahmed Hussein. He said he believed gas canisters were fired into the camp but pointed out that the situation was very confused. “I saw an explosion and smelled the smell; it was like bleach,” he said. — I was far enough away, but others were affected and left behind. Ammar Toma, a member of Parliament’s Defence and Security Committee, said that the panel had received photographs from officers of the projectiles used in the Saqlawiyah area. “We are not sure that chlorine was used,” he said. “But we believe it was either chlorine or another chemical. Mustafa Salim in Balad and Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report. Kurds fighting militant Islamic states to control Kobani fear that the extremist group may have used an unidentified chemical weapon, according to officials and one of the few doctors still working in the besieged Syrian city. Patients with blisters, burning eyes, and breathing difficulties appeared in a clinic after a blast was heard on Tuesday night, Dr. Walat Omar said. He described the symptoms as abnormal and said he could not identify their cause, but suspected a chemical weapon. “After a severe explosion [on Tuesday evening] we had some patients with abnormal symptoms. They reported a bad smell that gave some kind of allergic reaction,” Omar said in a telephone interview that was periodically disturbed by heavy explosions. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Blister on the body of a man in Kobani who Kurds fear may have been caused by the use of a chemical weapon by the Islamic State. The Guardian can't determine the cause of the blisters. Photo: Walat Omar “Some had red spots and blisters on their skin, others had difficulty breathing and others vomited, with painful throats, and others had burning eyes and noses. There was one patient, his entire body was covered in red spots and blisters. "The Islamic State (Isis) is believed to have received layers of aging but still potent chemical weapons when it seized Iraqi army bases where they were stored, the New York Times reported earlier this month. In June, the group took control of a vast complex that had been the heart of Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons program, Al-Muthanna State Establishment. There may also have been chemical weapons buried or abandoned elsewhere, which were not destroyed by U.S. forces or the Iraqi military. Stocks manufactured before 1991 are dirty, corroded and not always easy to identify or use, but can still cause serious damage. Iraqi officials said 11 police officers were poisoned by chlorine gas last month, when Isis forces used it to attack the Iraqi city of Duluiya. All officers survived. That attack was hundreds of miles from Kobani, near the Syrian border, where Omar said he feared that eight civilians had been injured by some kind of chemical attack. Intensive fighting has made it impossible to get doctors the equipment they need to make definitive tests for the use of chemical weapons, but Omar said they showed symptoms different from anything else he had treated for weeks of heavy fighting. He said he had ruled out chlorine gas or biological weapons, based on his medical training, but believed the damage was caused by a chemical. Trained in Ukraine, he is originally from Kobani and returned there to work after seven years in medical school. “This is the first time we have seen this kind of condition,” Omar said. “I’ve seen other strange conditions but nothing like it before.” The views of chemical weapons experts consulted by the Guardian were shared after seeing a series of images provided by Omar by a young man with large skin blisters and a heavily swollen lip. The images had no metadata to confirm what time and place they were taken, but had not been published on the internet before Omar gave them to a Kurdish journalist. An expert with personal experience in treating mustard gas victims said that although the blisters were not typical, the symptoms generally tallied with a possible sulphur mustard poisoning. It could only be confirmed by urine or blood tests. Other experts said that although the symptoms could be consistent with exposure to a chemical, they were somewhat unusual and other medical conditions, such as a severe allergic reaction, would need to be ruled out. Senior Kurdish politicians said they feared a chemical attack, and had asked for test equipment to seek confirmation. “Many people were injured ... and showed symptoms of the use of chemical weapons: asphyxiation, difficulty breathing, bleeding eyes, burning skin etc,” said Idris Nassan, Deputy Secretary of State of the Kobani administration. “Some of the doctors say that it may be phosphorus or poison gas of some kind, but the investigation is ongoing, we don’t know for sure. It’s possible that Isis fighters can mistake some chemical ammunition for ordinary weapons and use them without being aware of what they handle. It may also be more difficult to evaluate the effects of attacks with partially broken down weapons, one expert said. “Different factors can contribute to significantly milder symptoms than those normally associated with exposure of mustard agents under combat conditions. These may be unclean or degraded agents, short-term exposure or exposure to a limited amount of agents," says Jean-Pascal Zanders, a former analyst with the chemical and biological warfare project at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The bomb believed to have caused the damage treated by Omar exploded at 22 in western Kobani, near a hospital. Omar said he believed Isis might have targeted the health centre to try to undermine morale, although it was not used and none of the forces defending the city were in the area. “Some fighters were further away, they complained about their eyes watering and burning, and pain in the nose,” he said, appreciating that around 20 of them were affected but only needed basic first aid. Regarding civilians closer to the explosion, Omar said that he treated affected patients with oxygen, steroid cortisone and other drugs until about 2:30 p.m., as well as making calls from people who do not want to leave their homes. The three most seriously injured patients, ranging in age from 17 to over 40, stayed at the clinic overnight for observation and Omar attempted to arrange their evacuation to Turkey for further treatment. A Kurdish activist said Kobani may have suffered tear gas for the first time, perhaps drifting over from a Turkish border village where police had been using it for weeks to break up crowds of protesters. It has not been put into the intense fighting for Kobani and would therefore not be recognized by residents, although demonstrations nearest the border have almost all been in daylight hours, while Omar reported that victims arrived long after dusk. Further reporting of Constanze Letsch <unk> Caption Chemical weapons are believed to have been widely used in Syria The United States is investigating whether militant group Islamic State (IS) used chemical weapons in Iraq, Secretary of State John Kerry has said. Kerry said he was investigating "extremely serious" allegations that IS attacked Iraqi police officers with chlorine gas last month. Speaking on a visit to South Korea, Kerry said the claims were unconfirmed. In September, France, Germany and the United Kingdom said it was "probable" IS had chlorine gas. Kerry said that "the use of all chemical weapons is an abominable act; it violates international law". Nitrogen It is unlikely that IS has serious chemical weapons such as Sarin, VX gas or mustard gas. However, sustained reports from Iraq say they have used chlorine gas, which is classified as "a suffocating agent". Although it is not as deadly as neurotoxins, if inhaled in sufficient quantity, it can burn its lungs and create fear, panic, and a large number of victims. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) says that the use of the gas "is a CWC-defined use of chemical weapons." The CWC stands for the Chemical Weapons Convention, a treaty banning chemical weapons that the many countries have signed. It is widely believed that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons on a large scale. To avert the threat of retaliation against Western air strikes, Russia managed to negotiate in January an agreement on the disarmament of chemical weapons. Nevertheless, Assad is alleged to have used chlorine gas as recently as August. <unk>