04 April,2016 08:15 AM IST | | Agencies
The group has been using the lab for the past year; produced weaponry includes peroxide-based bombs and suicide-bomb vests like the ones used in the Brussels attacks
ISIS has been using the chemistry lab in Mosul for the past year to concoct explosive devices and train militants to make them
Washington: The ISIS is making use of Iraq's well-stocked Mosul University chemistry lab to churn out a new generation of deadly explosives, including chemical bombs and suicide vests, according to a media report.
ISIS has been using the chemistry lab in Mosul for the past year to concoct explosive devices and train militants to make them, The Wall Street Journal reported citing US and Iraqi military officials.
General Hatem Magsosi, Iraq's top explosives officer, was quoted as saying that the facilities at the University of Mosul have enhanced ISIS's ability to launch attacks in Iraq and to export bomb-making know-how when its fighters leave the so-called caliphate and return to their home countries.
When ISIS captured Mosul in the summer of 2014, the university was one of the spoils. The university had a strong reputation around Iraq for its science departments, alumni say.
The weaponry churned out includes peroxide-based chemical bombs and suicide-bomb vests like the ones used in the Brussels attacks and by at least some of the Paris attackers, the report said citing the General, others in the Iraqi military and an official from the US-led coalition fighting ISIS. Other bombs made include nitrate-based explosives and chemical weapons, Magsosi said.
"The University of Mosul is the best Daesh research center in the world," the General said, using another name for ISIS. "Trainees go to Raqqa, (Syria), then to Mosul university to use the existing facilities," he said. However, the report said the current status of the facility is not clear.
