Soldiers find Iraqi chemical 'dump'
27apr03
US SOLDIERS may have found banned chemical weapons in a number of barrels in a weapons dump in north-central Iraq.
Three initial tests indicated that they contained a deadly mixture of cyclosarin nerve agent and mustard gas.
Previous finds of suspect chemicals in Iraq have turned out to be false alarms, and a Pentagon spokeswoman today said defence officials had no conclusive evidence that the barrels contained chemical weapons.
She said samples from the barrels would be sent to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland for further testing, a process that could take a week.
An international team of chemical weapons experts headed to the site from Baghdad to conduct further tests tomorrow.
But the fact that the barrels were found next to a mobile laboratory in a munitions dump makes them more suspicious, and if further tests confirm that they contain chemical weapons, it would provide the long-awaited evidence that Iraq was hiding chemical weapons, as the Bush administration charged in justifying the need for war.
The tan barrels were found in a nine-square-kilometre storage area that also contained missiles, missile parts, gas masks, protective gear, a stripped mobile weapons laboratory and large storage containers covered by camouflage netting.
The area is three kilometres east of the town of Baiji in the Jabal Makhul, low, wind-worn mountains about 40km north of Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.
The barrels were on the ground next to a mobile laboratory that looked like a 1970s Russian truck with a cube on the back that was filled with sinks, a fermenter and other equipment.
It had been stripped bare, apparently by looters.
Lieutenant Colonel Ted Martin, the commander of the 10th Cavalry unit that tested and secured the barrels, said the mobile lab had charts showing dosage amounts.
Lieutenant Victoria Phipps, who heads the chemical reconnaissance team from the 10th Cavalry at the site, said three tests verified the presence of cyclosarin, a nerve agent, as well as a blistering agent, most likely mustard gas in liquid form, mixed together in a toxic slurry.
The tests, she said, were 98 per cent accurate.
"There was so much intensity in that area it was hard to test further," she said. "The levels were very high."
Cyclosarin is part of the family of organophosphate chemicals, which are also used in insecticides.
Exposure to a lethal dose of sarin or cyclosarin leads to loss of muscle control, paralysis and convulsions. Death can occur in minutes.
Low and medium exposure can result in nausea, dimness of vision and other symptoms that can last from days to weeks.
Officers at the site where the barrels were discovered said the results of the initial tests and the proximity to other types of munitions seemed to indicate a high probability that the chemicals were intended as weapons, not for benign purposes such as pesticides.
"It's the worst-case scenario in a can," said Martin.
| © Herald and Weekly Times |
