Kurdish forces say Islamic State group used chemical shells
IRBIL - Islamic State militants recently fired mortar shells believed to have been filled with a chemical substance, possibly chlorine, at Kurdish troops close to the Iraqi town of Sinjar, wounding 30 fighters, a Kurdish military officer and a medical official said Thursday.
Nine Kurdish soldiers, known as Peshmerga, were admitted to Azadi Teaching Hospital in the city of Dohuk last Friday with symptoms including vomiting, nausea, shortness of breath and itching, the director of the hospital, Dr. Afrasiab Mussa Yones, told The Associated Press.
He said that the symptoms suggested that chlorine had been used, but that further analysis was needed. Yones said he would send samples taken from the soldiers' clothes for analysis.
All the Peshmerga were discharged after treatment.
