Kurdish fighters report exposure to mustard gas

Several Iraqi Kurdish troops tested positive for mustard gas after battles this summer with the Islamic State group in northern Iraq, a spokesman for the paramilitary group said on Wednesday.

Blood samples from the Kurdish peshmerga fighters sent to a Baghdad lab revealed traces of the toxic gas, the spokesman, Jabar Yawar, told The Associated Press. The exposure took place during the battles along the front lines near the northern Iraqi towns of Makhmour and Gwer, he said.

The blood tests raise the specter that IS used mustard gas in fighting the peshmerga forces. If confirmed, it would be the latest chemical agent apparently procured and used by the extremist Islamic State group in the war.