Three-year-old Iraqi girl Fatima Samir died in a hospital today, the victim of a chemical weapons attack by ISIS against a target in Taza, just south of the city of Kirkuk. Dozens were hospitalized in the attack, and she is the lone fatality.
Officials say rockets were fired from the ISIS-held town of Bashir, not far away, and people began coming down with symptoms of a blister agent. Four people remain in serious condition from similar injuries from the gas.
ISIS has carried out a growing number of attacks with rudimentary chemical weapons, having acquired some basic capability to produce such agents, and having looted a number of empty shells left over from Iraq and Syria’s former weapons programs.
The Pentagon commented today on ISIS growing use of such weapons, saying it’s “not a high threat” to military forces operating in the area. The US has, however, targeted a pair of ISIS chemical weapons facilities in recent days.
I see in the reference that one of the locals’d like NGO’s to come to the site of the attack and see the results. In other words, this is yet another ploy to steal our money.