Soldiers sick: poison gas likely (Five taken to hospital for mustard gas symptoms)

Australian Associated Press ^ | April 8, 2003

[HAL9000]

THE US military was investigating today the 'likely' discovery of mustard gas near the central Iraqi city of Najaf after five soldiers developed blisters while on duty there, officers said.

The soldiers, from the 101st Airborne Division's 1st Brigade, suffered nausea as well as the blisters after walking into a building that stored Iraqi ammunition yesterday afternoon, military intelligence officer Captain Adam Mastrianni told AFP.

Mastrianni, attached to the division's Aviation Brigade, said initial tests showed the substance in the building was mustard gas, but more thorough tests were being conducted today to confirm that.

"It's fairly likely it was in fact mustard gas," Mastrianni said.

101st spokesman Lieutenant Eric Lake said the five soldiers were taken to a military hospital with blisters and nausea, but their conditions were not believed to be life-threatening.

Mastrianni said it was not yet clear where in the building the suspect substance was stored or whether it was packed into artillery shells.

If the substance is confirmed as mustard gas, Mastrianni said this was a breach of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's commitment not to produce or use chemical weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.

"It's still a chemical agent and it's not supposed to be utilised," he said.

"The bottom line is it's one of the items he was supposed to be destroy."

US forces "secured" Najaf, 100 kilometres south-west of Baghdad, last week after about a week of intense fighting with forces loyal to Saddam.

The 101st soldiers are still in the Shi'ite Muslim holy city to ensure it remains secure for military and humanitarian operations.

[NautiNurse]

Maybe someone with better posting skills than I could gather up all the stories on possible chem weapons find.

I've tagged a lot of them with "Paydirt Alert," although many, if not most, are false positives.

[Destro]

it was pesticides according to the updated report.

[Destro]

The chemicals turned out to be agricultural pesticides. No blaring headlines warrented.

[Destro]

This is the first I am hearing of camoflaged drums--links please.

[fightinJAG]

Thank you. Even the false positives are worth keeping track of. I'm trying to see how many different sites have been suspicious.

[PhiKapMom]

The drums themselves were not camoflaged but the the bunker itself was to keep anyone air surveillance from finding them. I didn't mean to infer the drums were camoflaged.

What was camoflaged was the cover over the trench where they were buried. MSNBC has the story!

[Destro]

Link please

[tallhappy]

This is a completely different location than the earlier one.

Iraq is the pesticide capital of the world, eh Johnnie?

[Redbob]

"...American Family Association (AFA) will deliver THE WORLD'S BIGGEST THANK YOU CARD to the home of PFC. Jessica Lynch..."

Oh, gag me!

What are they going to do for the 9 dead and 8 "missing" from the first attempt to free her?

Would we have expended 17 men if Pvt. Lynch had been male?

[mewzilla]

They must have the mother of all mosquitos in Iraq...

[1066AD]

MSNBC summarised thus:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/895392.asp?vts=040820030710

[Hermann the Cherusker]

What nine dead and eight missing?

[Liberty Tree Surgeon]

Those Marines went after the entire missing unit, likely right after they reported coming under attack. Those who died did so fighting against elements of the same force that captured the maintenance troops. And you better believe the SF would go after ANY American POW if they got intel on their whereabouts.

Do some fact checking before you post. There are better arguments against women in combat than erroneous ones.

LTS

[elfman2]

"Would we have expended 17 men if Pvt. Lynch had been male? "

Dude, I know what you mean, but let the people have their inspiration.

Sure, on some clinical level, it's not fair that pretty little girls get more attention than smelly ugly guys. Cuddly little bunnies also get more love that armadillos, but that's just our nature. Get over it.

[fuzzy122]

What are they going to do for the 9 dead and 8 "missing" from the first attempt to free her?

I missed the reports of a 1st attempt to free her. (Forgive my ignorance on this point.)
I did hear about the bodies of 9 soldiers found at that site that were taken prisoner with her. BTW: The rescue team, having no shovels with them, dug up the bodies with their bare hands. Imagine risking their lives "wasting" time digging in the dirt with your bare hands for some dead bodies. Foolish. Right?

Would we have expended 17 men if Pvt. Lynch had been male?

I would hope the sex of the prisoner would not be a factor in the decision process.
I'm curious.
Are you suggesting that after receiving intel on her location and condition our military should not have attempted a rescue?

[Marc Poor]

If I were hiding chemical weapons, I would store them in the same area that I stored pesticides. Perhaps buried beneath the drums of actual pesticides. I understand that they are similar chemical compositions.

[cake_crumb]

"For some reason, people seem to be rolling them all together and thinking it's one big chemical site on FR...including this, the barrels near Karbala, the BM-21 rocket warheads, etc"

It was an AFP story last night that rolled three seperate cites together under the name of the wrong city, specified 'smoking gun' aobut 5 times, and sneeringly called it all 'pesticide. I was the one ranting aobut the confusion and specifying the actual sites on several different threads.

[seams2me]

I'm afraid you're mistaken. You see, there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

If they really found some bad stuff, it must have been planted by the coalition forces.

Saddam doesn't have weapons of mass destruction.

/sarcasm

[Salvation]

Another smoking gun!

[Salvation]

Prayers for these soldiers.