Chemical Weapons Find in Iraq

A roadside bomb containing the nerve agent Sarin exploded near an American military convoy in Baghdad, the US military has revealed.

It was the second confirmed finding of any of the banned weapons upon which the United States based its case for the Iraq War.

"The Iraqi Survey Group confirmed ...that a 155-mm artillery round containing Sarin nerve agent had been found," said Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt, the chief military spokesman in Iraq. "The round had been rigged as an IED (Improvised Explosive Device), which was discovered by a US force convoy."

"A detonation occurred before the IED could be rendered inoperable. This produced a very small dispersal of agent," he said. The incident occurred two days ago, he said.

"Two explosive ordnance team members were treated for minor exposure to nerve agent," he said.

The Iraq Survey Group is a US-led organisation whose task was to search for Weapons of Mass Destruction after the ouster of Saddam Hussein in last year's invasion. Saddam claimed to have destroyed his chemical and biological weapons and UN inspectors had uncovered no major finds.

"The round was an old binary type requiring the mixing of two chemical components in separate sections of the cell before the deadly agent is produced," Kimmitt said. "The cell is designed to work after being fired from an artillery piece."

He said he believed insurgents who rigged the artillery shell as a bomb didn't know it contained the nerve agent, and the dispersal of the nerve agent from such a rigged device was very limited. Many of the materials used for roadside bombs are believed to have been looted from arsenals after the collapse of the regime in April last year.

Dispersal would be far more effective if a shell containing nerve agent were fired from an artillery piece, he said. Kimmitt said he believed it was the first case in which US forces had found an artillery shell containing Sarin.

"The former regime had declared all such rounds destroyed before the 1991 Gulf War," Kimmitt said. "Two explosive ordnance team members were treated for minor exposure to nerve agent as a result of the partial detonation of the round."

Iraq had first told UN inspectors it had made 812 tons of Sarin, then said it had made 790 tons, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in Sweden.

Iraq also produced binary weapons: bombs carrying two separate chemicals that when combined in an explosion, produce Sarin. Iraq acknowledged making thousands of rockets, artillery shells and bombs containing Sarin.

It used the chemical during its War with Iran in the 1980's and is believed to have used it against Kurdish Iraqi civilians.

In 1995, Japan's Aum Shinrikyo cult unleashed Sarin gas in Tokyo's subways, killing 12 people and making thousands sick. In February this year, Japanese courts sentenced the cult's former leader, Shoko Asahara, to death.

Developed in the mid-1930's in Germany, a single drop of Sarin can cause quick, agonising choking death. There are no instances of the Nazi's using the gas, but that didn't stop other nations stocking it after World War II.

Nerve gases work by inhibiting key enzymes in the nervous system, blocking their transmission. Small exposures can be treated with antidotes, if administered quickly.

Antidotes to nerve gases similar to Sarin are so effective that top poison gas researchers predict they eventually will cease to be a War threat.

The Iraq Survey Group, made up of dozens of teams, has been conducting a secretive and largely fruitless weapons hunt across Iraq for more than a year. The survey group combines members of the CIA, the Defence Intelligence Agency, US military Special Forces and others.

The team has run into a number of dead ends. In January, for example, field tests on discovered mortar shells near Qurnah in southern Iraq indicated a blister agent was in the shells. But follow-up tests indicated the munitions did not contain the agents, although US officials said Saddam had such agents in the early to mid-1990's.

Officials say there are chemicals associated with certain munitions, such as phosphorous, that can produce false positives. Some field tests are designed to favour a positive reading, erring on the side of caution to protect soldiers.

With no success finding the alleged stockpile of Weapons of Mass Destruction, some of the Iraq Survey Group teams have been redirected to hunting fugitives from Saddam's regime and foreign Terrorists believed to be launching attacks in Iraq, military officials have said.

See Also:
Biological and Chemical Threats
Biological Weapons FAQ's
Chemical Weapons FAQ's
Chemical Threats
Biological Threats
Biological Threats - Protecting Yourself
Biological Threats - Symptoms and Hygiene
How to Survive a Terror Attack