ISIS Launches Chemical Attacks

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials say the Islamic State group has launched two chemical attacks, killing a three-year-old girl and wounding some 600 people near the northern city of Kirkuk.

Security and hospital officials say the latest attack took place early today in the small town of Taza, which was struck by a barrage of rockets carrying chemicals three days earlier.

Helmi Hamdi, a nurse at the Taza hospital, says the wounded are suffering from infected burns, suffocation and dehydration. Eight people were transferred to Baghdad for treatment.

U.S. and Iraqi officials said U.S. special forces captured the head of the IS unit trying to develop chemical weapons in a raid last month in northern Iraq.

The extremist group is believed to have set up a special unit for chemical weapons research made up of Iraqi scientists who worked on weapons programs under Saddam Hussein as well as foreign experts.