Lab tests have shown that there was no mustard agent present in a munition that landed in the vicinity U.S. troops in Iraq last week, according to a U.S. military spokesman.
Col. John Dorrian said in a tweet Tuesday, “Definitive lab tests conclude: No mustard agent present in munitions fired at Qayyarah West AB.”
Definitive lab tests conclude: No mustard agent present in munitions fired at Qayyarah West AB Sept 20. #Daesh #ISIL
— OIR Spokesman (@OIRSpox) September 27, 2016
The shell landed Sept. 20 near Qayyarah West Air Base, “well away” from U.S. troops, Dorrian has said. About 200 U.S. troops are preparing to use that base as a staging area for the upcoming Mosul offensive.
The crude rocket set off alarms last week when a U.S. military ordinance disposal team noticed an oily, black substance on one of the munition fragments, a telltale sign of chemical weapons, and an initial field test was positive for mustard agent, a chemical irritant.
A second test was negative, but the fragment was sent for follow-up tests, which were initially inconclusive, but now show no evidence of the chemical agent. The results announced Tuesday appear to be at least the fourth test.
Nevertheless, the Pentagon says it’s likely that increasingly desperate Islamic State fighters will use chemical weapons at some point as Iraqi forces move on their strong hold in Mosul in the coming weeks.
“I think we can fully expect as this road toward Mosul progresses ISIL is likely to try to use it again,” Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said Monday. “This is something that could happen.”
Davis says all U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria are fully trained and equipped to deal with chemical agents on the battlefield, but with the assault on the Islamic State’s stronghold in Mosul looming, the U.S. has also provided 50,000 gas masks to Iraq and Peshmerga forces, in anticipation of a possible chemical attack.
