LATEST: Pentagon Considering Drone Strikes to Kill Islamic State’s al-Baghdadi, But Decision With Obama

Iraq’s Government has confirmed that it lost control of a former chemical weapons facility to “armed terrorist groups”, as insurgents moved from the north towards Baghdad.

In a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, dated June 30 and made public on Tuesday, Ambassador Mohamed Ali al-Hakim said Iraq is now unable to fulfill international obligations to destroy toxins kept at the Muthanna facility, north of Baghdad.

Muthanna reportedly holds mustard gas, Sarin, Tabun, and VX in two bunkers.

“The project management spotted at dawn on Thursday, 12 June 2014, through the camera surveillance system, the looting of some of the project equipment and appliances, before the terrorists disabled the surveillance system,” Alhakim wrote.

The Ambassador continued, “The Government of Iraq requests the States Members of the United Nations to understand the current inability of Iraq, owing to the deterioration of the security situation, to fulfill its obligations to destroy chemical weapons.”

He assured that Iraq would resume its obligations when the security situation improves and it has regained control of the facility.

After initial reports of the insurgent capture of Muthanna on June 19, a US military spokesman said, “Whatever material was kept there is pretty old and not likely to be able to be accessed or used against anyone right now. We aren’t viewing this particular site and their holding it as a major issue at this point.”

Pentagon Considering Drone Strikes to Kill Islamic State’s al-Baghdadi, But Decision With Obama

Senior officials say the US Defense Department is considering under what circumstances it will recommend the use of a missile-equipped drone to kill the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,

However, the officials emphasized that any mission would have to be approved by President Obama.

The sources, who spoke to CNN, said intelligence on al-Baghdadi could also be given to the Iraqi Government for a capture-or-kill mission.

They said US capture of al-Baghdadi would be difficult because there are no American combat troops on the ground in either Iraq or Syria. They also raised the problem that an American operation could be seen as a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.

Maliki Accuses Kurds of Being Part of “Conspiracy” with Insurgents

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has accused Iraqi Kurdish leaders of being part of a “conspiracy” with insurgents and remnants of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime.

“We will never be silent about Erbil” — the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan — “being a headquarters for the terrorist operations of (the Islamic State) and Baathists and al-Qaeda,” Maliki warned in his weekly televised address.

Maliki did not specifically refer to points of dispute with Kurdistan, such as Kurdish President Massoud Barzani’s intention to hold a referendum on independence and the status of oil-rich Kirkuk.

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters secured Kirkuk soon after insurgents took Mosul and Tikrit last month amid a collapse by Iraqi security forces.

Maliki said Government forces were fighting a “battle of destiny” to protect Iraq, its territorial integrity, and sovereignty from internal and external threats.