Daesh Used Chemical Weapons 19 Times Around Iraq's Mosul

Daesh terrorist group has used chemical weapons on at least 19 occasions around its self-declared Iraqi capital of Mosul, the latest research published on Tuesday showed.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — However, the use of chemical weapons has significantly fallen since the start of the Mosul offensive by Iraqi forces despite the city previously harboring the group's main chemical weapons production facilities, the statement added, noting that these are likely to have been evacuated to Syria by now.

"The Islamic State [Daesh] used chemical weapons on at least 52 occasions since 2014 in Iraq and Syria and at least 19 times in the areas around Mosul," the IHS Markit information analysis company said in a statement releasing data gathered by its Conflict Monitor system.

IHS Conflict Monitor, which monitors almost 300 social media sources for information on armed groups in Syria and Iraq, found that Daesh is inclined to deploy chlorine and mustard gas while possessing much lower potential for the use of conventional radioactive weapons.

The militants had captured some radioactive material from hospitals and universities in Mosul, yet the stockpile is of limited use for the creation of radiological dispersion devices (RDD), according to the research.