ISIS may strike France with chemical warfare, says French PM
November 19, 2015  15:24
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France could face the risk of chemical or bacterial warfare in its fight against Islamist terrorists, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said today.


"We must not rule anything out. I say it with all the precautions needed. But we know and bear in mind that there is also a risk of chemical or bacteriological weapons," Valls told parliament.


"The macabre imagination of the masterminds is limitless," he said in a speech in the lower house of parliament meant to gain approval to an extension of the state of emergency.


Evidence is mounting that Isis could be both manufacturing and using chemical weapons in Syria and Iraq. Months of reports by Kurdish forces fighting the so-called Islamic State sparked the start of an investigation by the US and a United Nations probe earlier this year.


No findings have been announced by either group but an anonymous UN official has told the BBC that at least four attacks using powdered mustard agents have been documented on both sides of the Syria-Iraq border.


Representational picture: Soldiers wearing gas masks hold bottles containing chemicals during a news conference at the Defence Ministry in Baghdad
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