Crude roadside bombs filled with toxic chlorine gas are now being used by ISIS terrorists, it's been reported.
Iraqi officials say government forces have diffused dozens of the devices in the course of their war with the fanatics and have produced video footage that backs up their claim.
"'Used in roadside bombs such as this, in the open air, it disperses reasonably quickly and so appears to be intended to cause panic rather than serious harm.'"
One Iraqi bomb disposal expert said that the use of the chemical is a sign of desperation.
They immediately began feeling the effects of the chemical, experiencing 'painful choking' and blocked throats.
Jennifer Cole, Senior Research Fellow at defence thinktank Royal United Services Institute, told MailOnline that although chlorine can be lethal, it does appear that it's being used to spread fear by ISIS.
'Used in roadside bombs such as this, in the open air, it disperses reasonably quickly and so appears to be intended to cause panic rather than serious harm.'
Chlorine was used by the British in the First World War, but it proved to be unreliable. In one attack in 1915 the gas blew back into British trenches after canisters of the chemical were fired from heavy guns at the Germans.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons' fact-finding mission concluded 'with a high degree of confidence' that chlorine was used on three villages in Syria last year, killing 13 people.
Chlorine is not a chemical that has to be declared to the OPCW because it is also used for regular purposes in industry.