“Iraqi Soldiers Found Wearing Chemical Gear”

[rv581]

http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/71765.htm

CAPTURED FOES FOUND WITH CHEM-WAR GEAR

By DEBORAH ORIN

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March 25, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - Some Iraqi troops had up-to-date chemical-weapons equipment when they surrendered - a warning sign that Saddam Hussein's forces are ready to use the dread arms, a new report says.

They had old guns but 2002 gas masks, chemical decontamination kits and atropine - an antidote for nerve gas, reported CBS correspondent Jim Axelrod, traveling with the Army's 3d Infantry Division south of Karbala.

"I would guess they were planning on using chemical warfare. They may or may not use it but they were ready for it," Sgt. Jennifer Raichle told him.

A captured Iraqi soldier said he believed that chemical weapons were hidden at a nearby depot, along with conventional arms and chemical gear, and U.S. forces will check it out today, the report added.

So far, allied troops haven't found any "smoking gun" chemical weapons - but Pentagon officials insist it's only a matter of time.

Officials said no chemical weapons have yet been found at a giant Iraqi chemical complex captured in Najaf, but that site is still being examined.

"It would not surprise me if there were chemicals in the plant and it would not surprise me if there weren't," war commander Gen. Tommy Franks said at a press briefing in Doha, Qatar.

U.S. troops on Sunday captured the complex - along with an Iraqi general and 30 soldiers - in a region about 90 miles south of Baghdad.

After the facility's seizure, officials said that it might be a factory for illegal chemical weapons and that they were interviewing in the captured general about what he knew of the activity there.

While U.S. officials yesterday downplayed the possibility that weapons would be found at the captured site, Franks reported getting "several handfuls of bits of information" about other sites that may hold the banned doomsday arms.

"Some of these locations are in areas where we have control; some we have not yet gone into," Franks said.

"It's a bit early for us to have an expectation of having found them. This is what we call Sensitive Site Exploitation [sSE] and we will do some SSE as we go along and some SSE later in the campaign."

[codeorama]

That's scary... I hope our troops stay safe.