Sarin Exposure Raises Concerns About ISIS Chemical Weapons in Syria

OPCW Affirms Syrian Govt's Arsenal Was Completely Destroyed

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has issued a report today affirming that the blood samples of some Syrians tested positive for exposure to sarin, raising concerns about the use of chemical weapons in the ongoing civil war.

The OPCW had an explicit mandate to not blame anybody for the chemical exposure, which would nominally allow nations to blame anyone they want for the attacks, though the OPCW followed this up by affirming that the Syrian government’s entire chemical weapons arsenal was already destroyed.

Most nations have eagerly blamed the Syrian government for such exposure, though Russia put two and two together and noted that the two reports made the probability “very high” that ISIS has developed its own rudimentary chemical weapons.

ISIS has been occasionally reported to use chemical weapons inside Iraq and Syria, but if their development is progressing it could dramatically change the face of the war, particularly if ISIS can began to more accurately deploy such weapons around the battlefield.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.