Australian FM: ISIS using chlorine as weapon

PERTH (Reuters) - Islamic State militants have used chlorine as a weapon and are recruiting highly trained technicians in a serious bid to develop chemical weapons, Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop warned.

In a speech to an international forum of nations that works to fight the spread of such weapons, Bishop said the rise of militant groups such as ISIS posed "one of the gravest security threats we face today."

"Apart from some crude and small scale endeavors, the conventional wisdom has been that the terrorist intention to acquire and weaponise chemical agents has been largely aspirational," Bishop told a meeting of the Australia Group in Perth.