Bundeswehr: 'Islamic State' used chemicals on Kurds

[unhappycamper]

http://www.dw.com/en/bundeswehr-islamic-state-used-chemicals-on-kurds/a-18647187

Germany's Defense Ministry has reported that Kurdish forces fighting the "Islamic State" in Iraq were attacked with chemical weapons a few days ago. "IS" apparently used chlorine gas against the peshmerga fighters.

Bundeswehr: 'Islamic State' used chemicals on Kurds
13.08.2015

On Thursday, Germany's Defense Ministry reported that the "Islamic State" had fired poison-gas grenades at peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq. Ministry officials believe that the IS fighters used chlorine gas on peshmerga troops in the town of Makhmur, in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish north.

"There was a chemical weapons attack" southwest of Irbil, a ministry spokesman told the news agency AFP on Thursday, adding that German military trainers remained unhurt, thought some Kurdish fighters had suffered respiratory problems. "American and Iraqi specialists from Baghdad are on their way to find out what happened," the spokesman said.

Eighty-eight German soldiers are currently deployed on a training mission in Irbil, Iraq's Kurdish capital, which lies about 60 kilometers (35 miles) from the site of the attack. They have been helping both Kurdish peshmerga and Yazidi fighters prepare for the long battle against IS with German-made weapons. Reports of chemical attacks by IS have increased in recent weeks, but Thursday's is the first confirmed by Germany's Defense Ministry.

IS had reportedly launched a suicide attack against the US consulate in Irbil in April, but by July the city appeared to be under control enough to allow the US defense minister to visit.