DAMASCUS, September 28 (RIA Novosti) - Islamic State (IS) extremists have used chlorine in fougasses several times, Iraq's Ministry of Defense stated.
"A number of terrorist groups of "Daesh" [the Arabic for "the Islamic State"] have used chlorine in a number of areas near water treatment plants. They used it [the chlorine] in hand-made fougasses not having significant destructive effects; they used them to mine the roads," said the Head of the Iraqi Defense Ministry's chemical protection department in a video posted on the website of the ministry.
According to him, the Islamic State militants do not currently possess enough chlorine in order to secure effects of destruction.
"So far, not a single case of chlorine contamination has been reported in the areas where they used such fougasses," the official added.
On September 15, the Iraqi TV channel "Alsumaria" stated that the Islamic State militants fired the city of Dulu'iyya with shells that contained toxic substances, presumably chlorine.
The city of Dulu'iyya is located 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad in Salah ad Din Province. As a result of the shelling, tens of people were injured, with medics confirming a condition of suffocation.
In this connection, Russia's Foreign Ministry called on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to thoroughly investigate the incident, along with the cases of chemicals uses in Syria, while at the same time describing the incidents as "the links in the chain".
A week after the news of the incidents in Dulu'iyya was out, Iraqi mass media, referring to an MP from Iraq's parliament, reported that 300 soldiers, who were trapped in the suburbs of Fallujah, were killed by a chlorine attack.
The IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the group extended its attacks to northern and western Iraq, declaring a caliphate on the territories over which it had control.
