The U.S. military says follow-up tests have yet to confirm that a mustard agent was used in a rocket that landed days ago near an Iraqi base where U.S. troops are located.
The incident was reported as suspected chemical attack by the Islamic State near an Iraqi base south of Mosul. About 200 U.S. troops are preparing to use that base as a staging area for the upcoming Mosul offensive.
Col. John Dorrian, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said an initial field test of a an oily tar-like substance found on the fragment of a rocket shell tested positive for mustard agent, but that a second test was negative, and third test was “inconclusive.”
Dorrian says the rocket landed near the Qayyarah West Air Base Tuesday, “well away” from U.S. troops, and there is no evidence anyone was exposed to a chemical agent.
The tests results cast doubt on the initial report that U.S. troops came under chemical attack. “There no evidence, no conclusive evidence on that,” Dorrian told reporters at a Pentagon briefing Friday. “So we wait for the test to come back.”
Dorrian said a “more advanced” test will be conducted of the samples collected from the rocket fragments, and that it could take a few more days to get a definitive answer.
In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford said the attack was “a concerning development,” even though he said the U.S. believes the Islamic State has only a “very rudimentary capability” to deliver deliver chemical munitions.
Last week, the U.S. coalition battling the Islamic State bombed a pharmaceutical plant, that Dunford said “was part of the chemical warfare network that ISIL has.”
Pentagon officials say operations at the Iraq base were unaffected by the attack.
