Concerns over ISIS plotting First World War-style chlorine gas attacks on UK commuters

CREDITS: DAILYMIRROR
Colonel Hamish with drug gang chemicals in 2007; today, bottom right; and ISIS leader Abu Bakr

Islamic State fanatics returning to Britain could be plotting horrifying attacks using chlorine gas which killed thousands of troops during the First World War.

The warning has been given by one of the world’s top experts in chemical warfare, Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, the retired head of chemical and biological weapons for the British Army and NATO.

After returning from advising security forces in Baghdad last week, he said he feared an attack by returning jihadis using knowledge of chlorine gas-filled IEDs is “highly likely”.

He added: "This could happen on a train or tube or even at a big football match. Acquiring weapons and ammunition is very difficult in the UK but you can get up to 90,000 tonnes of chlorine without any licence. In a confined space if you saw this yellow and green gas cloud and started smelling it the panic would create carnage."

Mr de Bretton-Gordon revealed hundreds of crude chlorine IEDs – which cause choking – are now being used extensively by IS in the defence of Tikrit.

Iraqi security forces are convinced chlorine bombs are being prepared to defend Mosul, Iraq’s second city. When IS overran Mosul last June it seized a huge chlorine factory and Iraqi forces believe it is stockpiling material for a deadly last stand. There are also fears IS has even deadlier mustard gas and sarin.

It would be the first time IS have used chemical weapons on a truly huge scale.

Mr de Bretton-Gordon said: “Islamic State are all over these chemical weapons. The big prize is Mosul, its capital in Iraq. Lose it and they lose the country and have to retreat to Syria.”

...TheMirror