The Russian defense ministry has undeniable evidence of the use of mustard gas by Islamic State terrorists against civilian population in Syria
Terrorists from the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra groups (both outlawed in Russia) are familiar with the technology of yperite and other poisonous substances production they are using widely in Syria, a Russian foreign ministry official said on Monday, commenting on the Russian defense ministry’s statement that it has undeniable evidence of the use of mustard gas by Islamic State terrorists against civilian population in Syria.
“I think this yperite is of local make,” Mikhail Ulyanov, director of the ministry’s non-proliferation and arms control department, told TASS. “Islamic State has technologies, raw materials and production facilities that make it possible to manufacture yperite and other poisonous substances, which fact, by the way, is confirmed by the leadership of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. We know about dozens of cases when terrorists used toxic substances in Syria. Thus, the latest such case took place near the border with Turkey, and the Turkish mass media confirmed it, when Islamic State militants used yperite against the so-called Free Syrian Army. More than 20 people were hurt.”
Touching on the issue of chemical weapons kept at storage facilities of the Syrian army, Ulyanov stressed that the major part of them were destroyed before Syria’s joining the Chemical Weapons Convention. The rest was taken outside the country and destroyed, he added.