ISIL Fighters Most Likely Have Domestically-Produced Chemical Weapons

On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing senior US officials, that the United States suspects ISIL of using mustard gas in Iraq. Militants are suspected of gaining the banned chemicals from those previously held by the Syrian government or from stockpiles leftover from the government of Saddam Hussein, according to the reports.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Anastasia Levchenko — Islamic State fighters have most likely manufactured chemical weapons themselves from commonly available chemicals, a spokesperson for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), told Sputnik on Friday.

"Most probably, it has to be their own effort. I do not think they had an access to any stockpile. In some form, making crude chemical weapons is entirely possible. The other possibility is that they can use, and there have already been some allegations, common industrial chemicals… which are easily available in the world," Malik Ellahi, acting spokesman of OPCW, told Sputnik.

US, Iraqi and French experts are currently investigating the case.

"It is a danger for the whole world. When such group gains access to chemical weapons, it is a danger for everybody," Malik Ellahi said.

Ellahi explained that, despite media reports that ISIL could have access to banned chemicals weapons out of those formerly held by the Syrian government, they are most likely to have created their own chemical weapons using commonly available chemicals.