Islamic State would like to use its chemical weapons against Americans, James Clapper warns at Munich global security conference

The director of US National Intelligence has warned that Islamic State (Isis) “would like to use chemical weapons” in an attack on America.



Speaking alongside Robert Hannigan, the head of GCHQ, at an annual global security conference in Munich on Friday, James Clapper said the terror group has procured chemical weapons, and appears to have used them numerous times in its war to create its self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq.

Both the Syrian regime and rebel groups have accused the others of using chemical weapons during the five-year conflict. In August 2015, testimony from doctors and experts fuelled claims that civilians near the Syrian city of Aleppo had been victims of an Isis attack involving a chemical agent that was most likely mustard gas. Isis is also known to have seized chemical weapons factories in Iraq.

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“It is pretty clear that they [Isis] have used this [chemical weapons] numerous times,” said Clapper. “It is very clear aspirationally they would like to do more and it is a concern to us in the United States because the indications are that they would like to use chemical weapons against us.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest James Clapper said Isis had procured chemical weapons. Photograph: Molly Riley/AFP/Getty Images

Clapper was speaking ahead of a screening of a CBS 60 minutes programme that will show the impact of a chemical warfare attack in Syria.

“Potentially it is a game changer, there are all kinds of scary scenarios you are able to conjure up if in fact Daesh [Isis] is able to enhance its competence with chemical weapons. It is of course a global issue given the spread of the provinces so-called that are the caliphate of Daesh,” said Clapper.

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In November, the French prime minister Manuel Valls warned of the possibility of chemical or biological attack by Isis or its associates on Europe following the Paris terror attacks. But experts have downplayed the threat, pointing to little evidence that even the most capable extremists are close to carrying out such an attack on the west.



Hannigan, appointed to head the UK government’s intelligence agency in 2014 , made no reference to chemical warfare abilities of Isis, but instead expressed fears that the group would soon be involved in cyber-terrorism.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Robert Hannigan, head of GCHQ (pictured), warned of Isis cyber-terrorism. Photograph: GCHQ/EPA

He said: “Daesh differed from other terror groups in seizing the power of global communications to radicalise individuals and to plan more ambitious, centrally driven, directed attacks in an increasingly undetectable way.

“Daesh is an organisation that understands the power of technology, thinks about it. We see them talking about it and learning how to abuse it.”

He said they had a high level of expertise, and although they were “not there yet” in terms of cyber-terrorism, “there will come a point when the capability matches the intent”.