RABAT, 5 Apr - (ANA) - ISIS terrorists have tried to create chemical weapons abroad and are hoping to one day use them to attack Europe, it has been claimed. Abdelhak Khiame, Morocco's head of counter terrorism, claims his unit has smashed 25 ISIS plots in his country in the past year alone - including one in February involving mustard gas. The ISIS cell, which had smuggled in weapons from nearby Libya, was planning chemical attacks on four cities plus a suicide bomber strike. He told British daily newspaper The Sun: 'It's very possible that Daesh would use this process to target Britain and other EU countries. 'It already has brigades of children and we know they train them in their camps looking to use them in terrorist attacks in Europe. As for chemical weapons, we have seen here how easy they are to prepare. 'The substances used in the plot we dismantled in February in Morocco are available in shops all over Britain, all over Europe.' Mr Khiame's Bureau Central d'Investigations Judiciares team, believed the group - which was caught in February - was trying to create mustard gas. He also claimed it was just one of 25 plots it had smashed within the country in the past year alone. Last month it emerged U.S. Special Forces had captured ISIS's chemical weapons chief - and he admitted the group was planning to use mustard gas in future attacks. The operative's capture was confirmed by an American official, who said the interrogation had yielded 'good things'. He was captured by special forces that the Pentagon recently deployed to conduct raids against ISIS. He is current detained in Iraq, one of the officials said. According to CNN, the US military has conducted airstrikes against 'targets it believes are crucial to ISIS's chemical weapons program'. Al-Afari, an expert in chemical and biological weapons, had formerly worked for Saddam Hussein's regime. Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis declined to confirm that US forces had captured an ISIS chemical weapons expert. But he added: 'We know that ISIL has used chemical weapons on multiple occasions in Iraq and Syria.' In February, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan for the first time openly accused ISIS of using chemical weapons, including mustard gas, in Iraq and Syria. Sources close to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons confirmed last month that mustard gas was used in fighting in August in northern Iraq, without specifically blaming ISIS for the attack. The group also confirmed mustard gas was used on August 21 in Marea in Syria, again without naming the perpetrator of the attack. Mustard gas - also known as 'sulfur mustard' - can cause respiratory distress, momentary blindness and painful blisters. It was first used by Germany in Belgium in 1917 and was banned by the UN in 1993.(ANA)

FA/ANA/5 April 2016---------