US testing Iraq chemical find

BBC ^ | 4/27/03

[LdSentinal]

The United States is testing materials found in Iraq that may have been used in the manufacture of chemical weapons, the Pentagon has said.

Officials say it will be several days before they have results.

They would not say when or where the materials were found, but a US television station reported that 14 unmarked drums had been found near the Bayji, about 210 kilometres (130 miles) northwest of Baghdad, on Friday.

The Pentagon announcement came as hospital workers in Baghdad said at least 12 people had been killed by explosions at an ammunition dump on the edge of the Iraqi capital.

America's ABC News reported that US chemical weapons specialists had tested a suspected mobile weapons laboratory.

Initial tests showed the presence of a nerve agent and a blistering agent, but the Pentagon remained cautious about the find.

The materials are being sent to the US for more comprehensive testing. The tests performed in Iraq can give false positives because similar chemicals are used in weapons and pesticides.

At least two previous suspected chemical weapons discoveries have turned out to be harmless.

But the barrels found at Bayji were near missiles and gas masks, making the US more suspicious. US forces escorted an ABC news crew to the site.

In a separate discovery, the UK newspaper the Sunday Telegraph said it had found documents linking Saddam Hussein with Osama Bin Laden.

The newspaper said an envoy from Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network travelled to Baghdad at the Iraqi leader's invitation in 1998 "to establish a relationship based on their mutual hatred of America and Saudi Arabia".

The Sunday Times, meanwhile, said that France had regularly briefed Iraq on its dealings with the US as recently as the end of 2001.

[BlackbirdSST]

In Kurdish controlled Northern Iraq? Blackbird.