Since its emergence, ISIS has sought chemical weapons and has used them against its opponents, namely the Syrian opposition groups, Kurds, Iraqi and Syrian government forces.

In September 2014, around 40 Iraqi soldiers and Shia militiamen showed symptoms of chlorine poisoning and many were hospitalized, consequent to the use in battle of bombs with chlorine-filled cylinders.

Around the same time, ISIS insurgents surrounded hundreds of Iraqi soldiers in the Saqlawiyah district of northern Fallujah, and used chlorine gas to suffocate them before detonating a car bomb. This resulted in the death of 300 Iraqi soldiers.

In January 2015, weaponized chlorine gas was likely employed by ISIS in a suicide bombing in northern Iraq against Kurdish Peshmerga fighters. Iraqi officials showed the BBC videos in March 2015 that they say confirm Islamic State use of chlorine gas in crude home-made bombs.

Three months later, ISIS shelled several security checkpoints and residential areas in Ramadi with chlorine gas-imbued bombs. This past August, ISIS launched 45 120mm-mortar shells tipped with mustard warheads against the Kurds in Makhmour, Iraq, and the effects included burns, blisters, severe damage to the eyes, respiratory system, and internal organs.

Since July of last year, ISIS has repeatedly attacked Kurds with chemical weapons in the strategic Syrian city of Kobane. At first, the ISIS used chlorine in Kobane and later, by this August, mortar shells filled with mustard gas. During an attack in Hasakah in August 2015, the same mustard weapons were used. The same weapon was used shortly thereafter by the group while fighting in the town of Mare near Alleppo.

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