The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) now controls a massive compound housing thousands of rockets loaded with lethal nerve gas, said a statement released by the Iraqi government, confirming fears that the Islamist group is capable of launching chemical attacks.

The Muthanna State Establishment, the center for Iraqi chemical agent production in the 1980s, was bombed during the Gulf War in 1991.

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The United Nations (UN) reported that the facility was not fully dismantled and the chemical warheads containing the deadly Sarin gas were left in the ruins before the Iraqi government stepped in to oversee the site's care.

This summer, Iraqi Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim wrote to the UN claiming that ISIL, also called ISIS, has gained control of the compound in late June, reported The New York Times.

The letter described how the militants looted the site where 2,500 rusting chemical munitions were left before shutting down the surveillance cameras.  

In the letter, Alhakim appealed to the members of the UN to understand Iraq's present inability to destroy chemical weapons, reported the Daily Mail.

The U.S. government has earlier claimed that the corroded warheads and shells no longer pose any danger. Rear Admiral John Kirby, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Defense, said the U.S. has no reason to consider the Islamic State's overrunning of the facility a threat.

However, The New York Times (NYT) released a report explaining how when repurposed as makeshift bombs, Iraqi chemical weapons remained potent.

The newspaper revealed this week that the U.S. government recovered and destroyed about 5,000 chemical bombs, but hid the information from the public for fear of embarrassment.

The findings did not support President George W. Bush's rationale for going to war with Iraq and some of the weapons were verified to have been designed in the U.S., the NYT said.

In July, ISIS militants reportedly attacked Syrian Kurds in Kobani with chemical weapons. Damning evidence points to the bodies of three Kurdish fighters whose blisters and white spots indicated of chemical weapons use, said the watchdog Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA).

TagsISIS chemical weapons, Islamic State attacks, ISIS, ISIL, Muthanna State Establishment, New York Times, nerve gas