The Islamic State is putting together a team of scientists to produce chemical weapons, raising concerns that they could be used against the West like last week’s deadly attacks in Paris, according to a published report.
The new branch of the terrorist group will consist of scientists from the region, including Iraq and Syria, and will conduct research and experiments to develop chemical weapons, U.S. and Iraqi intelligence officials said. Some of those working on the team once worked for Saddam Hussein’s former Military Industrialization Authority.
The team also includes foreign experts from Chechnya and southeast Asia, according to the Associated Press.
The Islamic State has been suspected of using mustard gas during attacks this year against Peshmerga fighters in Iraq and Syria. In those attacks, preliminary U.S. analysis found trace amounts of sulfur mustard on the weapons.
Previous reports suggest that the Islamic State may have gotten those weapons from the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
One European official said the Islamic State has produced its own mustard gas, but that it has so far been in small quantities and of low quality.
“Whether ISIL is manufacturing chemical weapons themselves or acquired from former or current stocks maintained by Bashar Assad, this is a potential nightmare scenario for our partners in the Middle East, and for us,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which he leads, in September.
U.S. officials don’t think the terrorist group is capable of developing more sophisticated weapons such as nerve gas and would be more likely to hurt themselves trying to make them, the report said.
