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Chemical weapons and terrorism

Tokyo subway attack of 1995
Tokyo subway attack of 1995
Workers cleaning a train car after members of AUM Shinrikyo released sarin in the Tokyo subway system, March 1995.

Until the 1990s, terrorists had rarely possessed or employed chemical weapons. However, several states that have sponsored terrorism have also possessed chemical weapons—Libya, Iran, and Iraq—and there is a concern that they and groups they sponsor might use chemical weapons in the future.

An example of an organization that learned to produce and use chemical weapons is the AUM Shinrikyo sect in Japan, members of which used sarin nerve agent to kill 12 people and injure more than 1,000 in a March 1995 chemical weapons attack inside the Tokyo subway system. Members of this same group had killed seven and injured more than 300 in a June 1994 attack in Matsumoto, Japan. They also assassinated one opponent using VX nerve agent in Osaka and injured another by the same means in Tokyo in early 1995. Finally, in May and July 1995, members of the AUM Shinrikyo used hydrogen cyanide in two follow-up strikes in the Tokyo subway that injured four persons. Altogether, the several attacks with three different types of chemical weapons killed 20 people, injured some 1,300, and sent more than 5,600 to the hospital for examination. Casualties would likely have been much higher had the Japanese police not intervened when they did.

Al-Qaeda leaders have shown an interest in acquiring and employing chemical weapons, as indicated by experiments testing the use of hydrogen cyanide on animals in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan prior to the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001. In addition to other documents showing ongoing research on chemical weapons, al-Qaeda planned and then aborted a chemical attack on the New York City subway system in 2005. Furthermore, al-Qaeda of Mesopotamia (also known as al-Qaeda in Iraq) initiated chlorine attacks in Iraq in 2007. It is believed by some Western analysts that al-Qaeda leaders would not hesitate to use any chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapons that they might acquire. For example, al-Qaeda of Mesopotamia openly issued a public invitation for Muslim chemists, biologists, and physicists to join their cause.

Unfortunately, a substantial amount of information on how to manufacture chemical weapons already exists in the public domain, particularly on the Internet, which is within reach of individuals and groups worldwide.

Barry R. SchneiderThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica