Islamic State is manufacturing chemical weapons with the help of Western-trained technicians and scientists, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said, according to The Australian.
Previously, ISIL terrorists had already used chlorine gas in an attack in Iraq and now they are working towards manufacturing more chemical weapons, Bishop said.
"Daesh [the Arabic equivalent for ISIL] is likely to have amongst its tens of thousands of recruits the technical expertise necessary to further refine precursor materials and build chemical weapons," the Australian foreign minister said during a meeting of the Australia Group forum in Perth, as cited by the Irish Independent.
She stressed that the rise of global terrorist groups such as ISIL is one of the "gravest security threats" that the world currently faces.
Since ISIL undermined the existing international order by using "any and all forms of violence they can think of" to advance their demented ideas, global power ought to tackle the threat by a joint effort to prevent large scale catastrophes, The Australian reported.
Chlorine-made chemical weapons were first used during World War I. Their use was banned under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention that prohibited all use of toxic agents on the battlefield.
