Though the campaign to liberate the Iraqi city of Mosul from the clutches of the radical Islamic State group began months ago, the barbaric jihadists have stubbornly refused to abandon western portions of the city and have taken their desperate counterattacks to a new and incredibly dangerous level.
According to The Washington Times, it was confirmed on Wednesday that Islamic State group fighters in western Mosul had launched a chemical weapons attack earlier in the week on advancing coalition forces, reportedly injuring several local Iraqi troops but causing no harm to any U.S. personnel, as per the senior U.S ground commander, Gen. Joseph Martin.
The sadistic radicals have launched upwards of 52 chemical strikes of one form or another against coalition forces in both Iraq and Syria, with some 19 attacks being launched in Mosul alone.
The New York Times reported that tests were still being conducted to determine exactly what sort of chemical was used in the most recent attack, but it was suspected of being a sort of sulfur mustard gas, most likely delivered by “indirect fire” via a mortar round.
That attack came just one day after Islamic State group fighters launched a rocket filled with chlorine gas against Iraqi troops in another part of the city.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, Gen. Martin confirmed that the attack had “no impact” on U.S. troops, but was a bit more cagey with reporters when asked if U.S. troops had been embedded with the Iraqis who were targeted by the chemical attack.
“We share the same risks as Iraqi forces. We are forward with the Iraqis,” Martin stated in the live stream from Baghdad, adding that all U.S. forces in Mosul were in possession of “appropriate equipment” to deal with chemical attacks and were specially trained to provide assistance to coalition troops that are not always similarly equipped.
Sadly, it is the remaining civilians in Mosul who face the brunt of the evil dispensed by the terrorist group’s indiscriminate attacks, with Martin noting that the Islamic State group militants have fired at least 7,000 rockets and mortar rounds into — as well as placed countless improvised explosive devices in — predominately civilian areas of the city with a purpose to “kill, maim and injure innocent civilians.”
“The longer this fight goes on in West Mosul, the civilians will suffer at the hands of a brutal enemy,” Martin added. “ISIS must be defeated quickly.”
Indeed, and in light of their having no qualms about using internationally banned chemical weapons against both military and civilian targets alike, the impetus to rapidly crush them like the roaches they are only grows stronger.
(via: Conservative Tribune)
