(United Nations) United Nations experts have unearthed evidence of the use of chemical weapons by the jihadist group Islamic State during the era of its self-proclaimed “caliphate”, says a report which was due to be debated on Monday by the Security Council.
Members of UNITAD, the investigative team responsible for helping to bring ISIS to account for its crimes, claim to have collected “testimonial, digital and documentary evidence” relating in particular to the use of chemical weapons in Iraq under the Caliphate (2014-2019).
Experts conclude that IS “has manufactured and produced chemical rockets and mortars, chemical rocket launcher ammunition, chemical missile warheads and improvised explosive devices”.
The investigation was particularly interested in “the financing, supply and logistics of [l’EI] and its links with the command elements, to better understand the alleged sites of manufacture, production and use of weapons in Iraq, to obtain additional information on the agents manufactured […] and vectors used.
The experts focused in particular on an attack perpetrated against Taza Khormatu on March 8, 2016. They claim to have collected “a significant amount of evidence”, including “payroll statements and elements of correspondence” from the jihadist group .
The team ‘examined evidence of compensation from families for the ‘martyrdom’ of their members killed while handling chemical weapons […] and records of training provided […] to high-ranking officials on the use of chemical substances as weapons, including chemical dispersal devices”.
Among the products used were “aluminum phosphide, chlorine, Clostridium botulinum bacteria, cyanide, nicotine, ricin, and thallium sulphate”.
The report highlights “the medical complications that residents of Taza Khormatu are currently suffering from (chronic diseases, cancers and reproductive disorders, in particular)”.
“Money Services”
It also discusses other major crimes, including mass sexual violence, the persecution of the Christian community of Iraq and other communities, as well as the destruction of cultural and religious heritage.
Further, referring to ISIS funding, UNITAD “has significantly expanded its evidence base against those in commercial money service networks who provided logistical support to (ISIS) and fired profit from its campaigns of violence.
According to her, “functional links have been established between the networks in Mosul and Baghdad and the larger regional networks in the Middle East and the Gulf region”.
Elements “demonstrate a close association” between the leaders of the IS “and certain money services companies, which became complicit in schemes of extortion of funds from the local population, in which they ensured the management and transfer of plundered wealth.
The group has also begun to examine the “takeover and exploitation” of Iraqi oil.
The jihadists had established in June 2014 a “caliphate” in a vast region straddling Iraq and Syria. An international coalition, led by the United States, had fought the organization until the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) seized the last stronghold of IS in March 2019, Baghouz (East of Syria), signing the end of the “caliphate”.