STORM2K

Stephanie wrote:Is this the same area where soldiers were showing symptoms of nerve gas exposure?

NEAR KARBALA, Iraq, April 7 — U.S. Army commanders say they have discovered more than a dozen barrels of chemicals in an agricultural facility 30 miles northeast of here that have tested positive as blister and nerve agents. If that initial analysis is backed up by further testing, it would be the first confirmed seizure by U.S. forces of Iraqi chemical weapons.

THE U.S. SAID IT invaded Iraq to destroy Saddam Hussein’s chemical and biological weapons, but until now none of those weapons have been found. U.S. commanders said American troops were searching through the agricultural facility and discovered literature on controlling mosquitoes. But in a nearby pit camouflaged with leaves they found eleven 25-gallon barrels and three 55-gallon barrels.

Initial tests at the site were positive for chemical weapons, so more sophisticated gear — a mobile testing unit provided by the German government — was brought in.

Those tests also were positive for GA, known as tabun, GB, also known as sarin, both nerve agents, and for lewisite, a blister agent. But further testing is under way. “Our detectors have indicated something,” Maj. Ros Coffman, a public affairs officer with the U.S. 3rd Infantry, told Reuters. “We’re talking about finding a site of possible WMD [Weapons of Mass Destruction] storage. This is an initial report, but it could be a smoking gun,” he said, adding that the site was south of the central Iraqi town of Hindiyah.

“It is not as if there is a cloud of gas hanging everywhere endangering soldier’s lives. We’re talking about a facility,” Coffman added. The U.S. troops were apparently led to the site by an Iraqi who approached them and said he had seen Iraqi military units in the area where the barrels were found. About two miles away, tests indicated the presence of GB, or sarin, in what was apparently a training camp. But sarin is also used in low levels in pesticides, which were found at the camp, so it is not clear if the facility is a nerve agent site or merely an agricultural facility.