Official: ISIS may have fired chemical weapon at U.S. base in Iraq

U.S. Army tankers in Iraq.
(Image credit: Scott Nelson/Getty Images)

A U.S. base near Mosul, Iraq, was possibly attacked with a chemical weapon on Tuesday, a U.S. official said Wednesday.

The official told Fox News that the base outside Qayyarah came under rocket fire from Islamic State militants, and that it's believed one of the shells contained traces of a "mustard agent." An initial test was positive and a second test came back negative, but that result could have been due to the shell being exposed to the elements. No one was injured in the attack, and no troops have shown any "signs of exposure," the official said. A few soldiers who were close to the shell received full decontamination treatment, and residue from the shell is being sent to Maryland for testing.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.