US: Shell that hit Iraqi base contained sulfur-mustard agent

The top U.S. general said Thursday that an Islamic State rocket that hit a military base used by hundreds of U.S. troops in northern Iraq contained chemical agents that cause human skin to blister.

Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday about the disclosure a day earlier that the Islamic State may have attacked Qayara West air base with chemical weapons.

U.S. officials had said Wednesday that an oily substance found on a fragment of the rocket that landed inside the security perimeter of the base initially tested positive for mustard agent, but that a second test was negative. They said further laboratory testing was scheduled.

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