German Army troops confirmed a possible chemical attack against Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers fighting the Islamic State.



The Local reported:

“We have indications that there was an attack with chemical weapons” against the Peshmerga fighters that left many suffering from “respiratory irritation,” a ministry spokesman told AFP.

A senior official from the Peshmerga told AFP the attack happened two days ago and wounded several dozen fighters.

“Last Tuesday afternoon, Peshmerga forces in the Makhmur area 50 kilometres west of the city of Arbil were attacked with Katyusha rockets filled with chlorine,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

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The defence ministry in Germany, which is providing arms and weapons training to the Kurdish forces, said that “American and Iraqi specialists from Baghdad are on their way to find out what happened”.

A ministry spokesman had said earlier “there was a chemical weapons attack” near Arbil, the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.

A second ministry spokesman later stressed that German forces were not present during the attack, but that “we have indications that there was an attack with chemical weapons”.

Germany has been supporting the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters since September to back their push against IS jihadists, and currently has about 90 personnel on the ground.