Insurgents in Iraq didn’t just make off with aging chemical weapons stocks, as was revealed yesterday.  Iraq’s UN Ambassador says jihadists seized nearly 40 kilograms of uranium compounds from a research lab in Mosul University in Iraq’s north.

“These nuclear materials, despite the limited amounts mentioned, can enable terrorist groups, with the availability of the required expertise, to use it separate or in combination with other materials in its terrorist acts,” wrote Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim in a letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, adding that such materials “can be used in manufacturing weapons of mass destruction.”

An American official familiar with the matter told the Reuters News agency that he believed the material was not “enriched” uranium, used in thermonuclear weapons, therefore would be difficult to use to manufacture into that kind of weapon. 

The militant group until recently known as “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” has shortened its name to “Islamic State” after capturing much of northwestern Iraq and the neighboring areas of Syria.  Iraq is asking for international help to “stave off the threat of their use by terrorists in Iraq or abroad”.