News and Document archive source
copyrighted material disclaimer at bottom of page

NewsMinewar-on-terroriraqpost-2003-war — Viewing Item


Sarin gas round found partly detonated in iraq

Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
   http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a_eQwYx7vT6I&refer=us

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a_eQwYx7vT6I&refer=us

Sarin Nerve Gas Round Found, Partly Detonated in Iraq (Update2)
May 17 (Bloomberg) -- A small shell containing sarin nerve gas was discovered and partly detonated in Baghdad ``a couple of days ago,'' U.S. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said during a briefing televised from Baghdad.

The 155-millimeter round, which was rigged as an improvised explosive device, was found by a U.S. convoy and detonated before it could be rendered inoperable, producing a very small amount of nerve gas, Kimmitt said. Two members of the ordnance team were treated for minor exposure to the nerve agent, he said.

U.S. President George W. Bush argued before the U.S.-led war to remove Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein that Iraq had to be attacked because it possessed weapons of mass destruction. Hussein's regime declared all of its sarin nerve gas rounds destroyed before the 1991 Gulf War, Kimmitt said. Kimmitt said it was the first sarin shell the U.S. military has found.

Ewen Buchanan, spokesman for the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, or Unmovic, which searched Iraq for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons for almost four months until the war began in March 2003, said that without seeing the round mentioned by Kimmitt, he couldn't comment on whether the find is significant.

UN weapons inspectors ``did destroy a lot of that stuff in the early 90s, but we don't discount that remnants of chemical weapons remained,'' Buchanan said. ``We found 12 empty rounds intended for chemical weapons'' before the war, he said.

While U.S.-led coalition forces didn't find any weapons of mass destruction after the invasion of Iraq, Bush said last month there ``could still be'' some in the country. Arms experts including David Kay, chief U.S. arms inspector from June 2003 to January 2004, have said there most likely weren't any such weapons to find.

Older Shell

The shell was an older round with two compartments containing two chemical components that need to be mixed before the agent is produced, Kimmitt said today.

The device was designed to work after being fired from an artillery cannon and the ability to mix and distribute the gas from an improvised explosive device is ``very limited,'' Kimmitt said. Rigged the way it was ``it's virtually ineffective,'' he said.

Whoever rigged the round to explode appears not to have known the shell contained nerve agents, said Kimmitt. Sarin, when inhaled in a high concentration, can kill a person in a couple of minutes.

Nerve agents such as sarin cause ``a kind of death by suffocation'' through muscular paralysis, according to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which administers an international treaty.




collateral-damage
detentions
economy
fake-letters
governance
humanitarian
iraqi-army
journalists
monetary-cost
most-wanted
polls
shooting-civilians
united-nations
3000 bodies mass grave
Americans parading naked iraqis { April 26 2003 }
Americas accuse british colonel { May 22 2003 }
Bush said cia just guessing about post war scenario { September 29 2004 }
Bush to proclaime combat phase over { May 1 2003 }
Bush wants civil war in iraq
Drug crisis grips baghdad { October 4 2003 }
France happy saddam end
Grief at iraqi mass grave
Interrogate with metallica
Iraq drug market explodes { February 17 2004 }
Iraq information minister returns
Iraq like chicago { September 5 2003 }
Iraq prosoner abuse probe
Iraq veterans turn war critics { January 23 2005 }
Iraqi civilians can now keep assault rifles { June 1 2003 }
Iraqs defeat us military in soccer
Israeli assassin gang iraq scientists
Japan rejects iraq troop dispatch now { November 13 2003 }
New policy shoot looters { May 14 2003 }
Philippines accounces pullout to save iraq hostage
Putin warns us on iraq effort { October 6 2003 }
Refiguring bush 30 thousand iraqi body count { December 17 2005 }
Rumsfeld denies shoot on sight
Rumsfeld tours iraq { April 13 2005 }
Saddam killing fields 1991 uprising
Sarin gas round found partly detonated in iraq
Seize weapons from iraqis { May 21 2003 }
Some carriers going home
State department forsaw trouble plaguing iraq { October 19 2003 }
Terror threat lowered yellow { April 16 2003 }
Troops vandalise ancient city ur { May 18 2003 }
Turkey sends troops { October 8 2003 }
US doesnt want elections in iraq { January 19 2004 }
Us halts aid plane { April 18 2003 }
Us hunts 91 pow { April 24 2003 }
Water sewage power problems in 2005 iraq { May 12 2005 }
Whitehouse to overhaul iraq afghan missions { October 6 2003 }
Wolfowitz concedes iraq errors { July 24 2003 }

Files Listed: 39



Correction/submissions

CIA FOIA Archive

National Security
Archives
Support one-state solution for Israel and Palestine Tea Party bumper stickers JFK for Dummies, The Assassination made simple