US Finds Nothing at Suspect Iraq Chemical Plant

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, March 26, 2003

US Finds Nothing at Suspect Iraq Chemical Plant

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US military investigators have found no evidence that chemical weapons have been made in recent years at a suspect chemical plant secured by US troops in southern Iraq, a senior defense official said Tuesday.

Before the war, American intelligence agencies had identified the site in the town of Najaf as a possible part of Iraq's chemical weapons program, the official said, speaking on condition he not be identified. Indications then were that the plant had not been used for banned weapons activities since 1998, the official said.

The site had not been involved in illicit weapons production in the last five years, the official said.

President Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi officials say all of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons were destroyed shortly after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Pentagon officials continue to worry that Saddam's forces could use chemical or biological weapons as coalition ground troops advance toward Baghdad. The Iraqi capital is protected by the Republican Guards, the best trained and best equipped troops of Saddam's army.

The biggest worries for US commanders are Iraq's possible chemical weapons, which include the nerve agents sarin, soman and VX, as well as mustard agent of the type used in World War I.

Most of the chemical weapons are loaded in artillery shells in rockets, which have a range of about 12 miles or less. US troops have protective gear to deal with chemical weapons, as well as detection equipment that can sniff out a cloud of chemical weapons as far as three miles away.

Source: agencies

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