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I do not know how you would call it,
till know they do not give it any judgment above what General Kimmit had to say about it. He did not call it WMD and he downplayed it.
So if Kimmit calls it an old shell from before 1991 I guess there is nothing more in stock from this news flash.

But as I said it is headline news even in the German leftist magazines. The conservative papers give it less coverage. Dutch media covers in similar tone but quote a top rank coalition official to have stated that the shell is probably from the Iran/Irak war.

This is an extract from British coverage:

"SARIN GAS SHELL EXPLODES IN IRAQ

May 17 2004

By Steve Purcell

An artillery shell containing deadly sarin gas has exploded in Iraq, it was confirmed today.

A small amount of the nerve agent was released when the shell, discovered by a US military convoy, went off.

Two members of an explosives team have been treated for exposure to the gas.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said today that the substance had been found in a 155mm artillery shell discovered by a U.S. convoy. The round, which had been rigged as an improvised explosive device, blew up causing a small release of the substance.

Brig Kimmitt said the round belonged to a class or ordnance that Saddam Hussein's ousted government had claimed to have destroyed before the 1991 Gulf War."