Iraq has informed the United Nations by letter that it has lost control of a former chemical weapons facility to the Sunni jihadists until recently calling themselves Islamic State Of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and therefore Baghdad unable to fulfill its international obligations to destroy poisons stored there.

“The Government of Iraq requests the States Members of the United Nations to understand the current inability of Iraq, owing to the deterioration of the security situation, to fulfill its obligations to destroy chemical weapons,” wrote Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim in a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. 

On 11 June, the Sunni militants entered the Muthanna site, looted some equipment and disabled other items.  The last UN Weapons Inspector’s report in 2004 said that one bunker contained 2,500 chemical rockets that were filled with the deadly toxin sarin before 1991, as well as about 180 tons of sodium cyanide, which is described as “a very toxic chemical and a precursor for the warfare agent tabun.”

The US government played down the threat, saying that there are no intact chemical weapons and it would be very difficult – if not impossible – to use the material for military purposes.