Iraq’s government in Baghdad says militants who call themselves the Islamic State (IS) have carried out a chemical attack near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on March 12 – the second such attack within days.
Iraqi officials say the poisonous chemicals used against the town of Taza killed the three-year-old daughter of a Shi’ite militia member who is fighting against IS militants.
They say the attacks wounded about 600 other people in Taza who are suffering from infected burns, suffocation, and dehydration. Hundreds more fled.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told a meeting of village elders in Taza later on March 12 that the attacks “will not go unpunished,” and that “the perpetrators will pay dearly.”
Iraqi Kurdish officials say IS militants shelled Taza on March 8 with Katyusha rockets and mortars filled with “poisonous substances.”
Taza is a mainly Shi’ite village about 20 kilometers south of Kirkuk, a region under Kurdish control.
Wasta Rasul, a Kurdish Peshmerga commander, said the chemical attacks on Taza came from the nearby Bashir area, which is under the control of IS militants.
