U.S. tests for mustard agent after rocket attack near Iraq base

WASHINGTON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. military is carrying out tests to see if a chemical agent may have been used in a rocket attack in Iraq by Islamic State that came within hundreds of yards (meters) of U.S. forces but injured no one, a U.S. official said on Wednesday. The rocket fell on Tuesday in an unpopulated area near the Qayyara West base, where hundreds of U.S. forces are working to prepare an airfield ahead of Iraq’s offensive to retake the city of Mosul from the radical group Islamic State, said the official, who spoke with Pentagon reporters on condition of anonymity. A group of U.S. forces inspected the fragments afterwards and took a small sample of a suspicious “tar-like, black, oily” substance, which initially tested positive for mustard agent but then tested negative in a subsequent examination, the official said.
The U.S. military investigates yesterday's Islamic State rocket strike near the Qayyarah Airfield West to ascertain if a chemical agent was used.