“They know about the preparations for retaking Mosul, so they’re resorting to chemical attacks more often than before to show their capabilities and power, and prove that they can protect and defend their area,” General Mahmoud Ali, head of a Peshmerga engineering unit said.
As the Iraqi and Kurdish forces have set their eyes on Mosul, where a military offensive is expected to attempt the retake of northern Iraq’s largest city from the ISIL by the end of the year, more chemical attacks by the ISIL ‘are expected’, according to the sources in the Peshmerga forces.
“So far we have been relying on primitive ways of protection, using water tanks, towels or jamadani [traditional Kurdish head turbans] to protect ourselves every time there’s a chemical attack,” Major Luqman Abdulaziz said.
He said that his battalion of about 500 fighters had only a few dozen of gas masks for their protection. The masks were provided by Germany, earlier in the year about 1,000 masks to the Kurdish forces, but Abdulaziz’s unit was able to manage to get only a few dozen.
“We can only provide oxygen and hydrocortisone [a medication to treat skin conditions that reduces swelling, itching, and redness],” said Aso Aziz, administrative head of the Makhmour health centre.
General Ali says that ISIL has mostly being relied on the chemistry labs of the University of Mosul, that was once one of Iraq’s finest centres for higher education, to develop its chemical weapons program.
By Premji
