Islamic
State tested poisonous chemicals on prisoners in a bid to produce
easily-obtainable chemical weapons for local use and potential
terrorist attacks in the West, records recovered from Mosul by Iraqi
soldiers and obtained by The Times show.
Arabic-language
notes detailing experiments with thallium sulfate and “a
nicotine-based compound” were reportedly discovered hidden inside
the University of Mosul by an Iraqi special forces unit during the
current operation to recapture the city, which has been under the
control of the radical Islamist group since 2014.
The UK
newspaper reports that British and US forces verified the papers as
those belonging to Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS/ISIL).
In one
experiment, a man weighing 100kg was gradually poisoned with thallium
sulfate, which was dissolved in his food and water. Over a period of
10 days the victim suffered nausea, fever and finally swelling of his
internal organs, before an agonizing death.
A colorless
and tasteless substance, less than a teaspoonful of which is required
to kill, thallium sulfate is a well-known toxin, featured in an
Agatha Christie murder mystery.
But what the
Islamic State scientists described as an “ideal lethal poison”
also occurs frequently in nature, and is commercially available as a
pesticide in countries such as the US.
The other
compound in the notes, found in nicotine, could be extracted from
cigarettes and vaping liquids, but was equally deadly to its test
subjects.
Full
report:
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