The UN-run World Health Organization is preparing an emergency response plan to treat Mosul residents injured in what appears to be the first chemical weapon attack in the assault on Islamic State’s Iraqi stronghold.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is working with local health authorities in the Iraqi city of Erbil to provide support in treating at least 12 people said to have respiratory symptoms and blistering. Four of them “are showing severe signs associated with exposure to a blister agent,” the agency said in a statement.
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It is not immediately clear who launched the attack, but media reports indicate that the mortar shells came from western Mosul, which is still controlled by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) militants. The terrorist group is believed to be capable of manufacturing and using crude chemical weapons in both Iraq and Syria.
Since the outbreak of the battle of Mosul, the WHO has been developing the capacities to respond to the use of chemical weapons. According to the statement, the organization has trained over 120 clinicians and provided field decontamination equipment to local hospitals.
It also said the use of chemical weapons had deteriorated the humanitarian situation in western Mosul, “where innocent civilians are already facing unimaginable suffering as a result of the ongoing conflict.”
The chemical weapons attack was also confirmed and condemned by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The symptoms of the patients treated at Rozhawa hospital in Erbil included “blisters, redness in the eyes, irritation, vomiting, and coughing,” the ICRC said, adding that its medical teams dispatched to hospitals around Mosul have trained local staff on how to decontaminate and treat patients exposed to chemical agents.
READ MORE: Civilian death toll grows amid ISIS attempts to disrupt Mosul siege, UN figures show
“The ICRC condemns in the strongest possible terms the use of chemical weapons during fighting around the Iraqi city of Mosul,” the organization’s statement said.
“The use of chemical weapons is absolutely prohibited under international humanitarian law. We are deeply alarmed by what our colleagues have seen, and we strongly condemn any use of chemical weapons, by any party, anywhere,” the ICRC’s regional director for the Middle East, Robert Mardini, said.
