Moscow alarmed with reports of use of chemical weapons in Iraq, calls for probe - Churkin
MOSCOW. Sept 16 (Interfax) - Russia considers it necessary to investigate cases of use of chemical weapons in Iraq, Russian Permanent Representative at the United Nations Organization Vitaly Churkin said.
"We are alarmed with a growing number of reports on the use of toxic agents as chemical weapons in Iraq. We believe that a mandate of the joint mechanism for investigation should be spread to the territory of Iraq. We are working on this," Churkin said during a TV link-up with New York.
Last week the BBC television and radio broadcasting corporation said with reference to an American official that gunmen from the Islamic State grouping were producing yperite (mustard gas) themselves.
The source said that the United States had information about at least four cases of use of yperite by IS militants. The U.S. official said that the militants had used chemical weapons in powder form.
The US has identified at least four occasions on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border where IS has used mustard agents, the BBC cited the official as saying.
The U.S. believes that the Islamists have a special group which is developing and upgrading this weapon.
American media made several reports in August that gunmen of the IS terrorist grouping had most likely used the yperite toxic agent against Kurdish armed units. Yperite is suspected of falling into the hands of militants in Syria, the government of which agreed to eliminate its chemical weapons stockpile in 2013.