Shiite fighters launch a rocket during clashes with ISIL militants on the front line at the Shiite Turkman village of Basheer, 20km south of Kirkuk on March 14. Reuters
Shiite fighters launch a rocket during clashes with ISIL militants on the front line at the Shiite Turkman village of Basheer, 20km south of Kirkuk on March 14. Reuters
Shiite fighters launch a rocket during clashes with ISIL militants on the front line at the Shiite Turkman village of Basheer, 20km south of Kirkuk on March 14. Reuters
Shiite fighters launch a rocket during clashes with ISIL militants on the front line at the Shiite Turkman village of Basheer, 20km south of Kirkuk on March 14. Reuters

Iraqi Kurds claim ISIL group used chemical weapon


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BAGHDAD //The Kurdish government in Iraq says it has evidence examined by an independent laboratory confirming that the ISIL group used chemical weapons against peshmerga fighters.

A statement Saturday from the Kurdistan Region Security Council claimed that the purported chemical weapon attack involved chlorine gas used in a January 23 suicide car bomb attack in northern Iraq.

It said the alleged attack took place on a road between Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, and the Syrian border, as peshmerga forces fought to seize a vital supply line used by the Sunni militants. The Kurds say samples were analysed by an unnamed lab in an unnamed coalition partner nation, which found chlorine traces.

ISIL has been suspected of using chlorine in previous attacks in Iraq and Syria.

* Associated Press