26 March 2003
U.S. Forces Find 3,000 Chemical Suits at Iraqi Hospital
(Central Command Report, March 26: Iraq Operational Update) (380) U.S. forces have found 3,000 Iraqi chemical protective suits at an An Nasiriyah hospital, which gives war planners an indication that Saddam Hussein's regime is preparing to use banned chemical weapons against coalition forces, a U.S. Central Command briefing officer said March 26. U.S. Marines also confiscated Iraqi gas masks, nerve agent antidote autoinjectors, a tank, and more than 200 light weapons at the hospital, which Iraqi irregular militia forces had used as a base to conduct operations, Army Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, CENTCOM deputy director of operations, said during a briefing at CENTCOM's forward headquarters at Camp As Sayliyah, Doha, Qatar. "What we found at the hospital reinforces our concern," Brooks said. Coalition forces engaged in hostilities in Iraq do not have chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, he said. But he added that coalition forces are well-prepared to deal with the potential use of chemical weapons. This report follows previous CENTCOM and Pentagon reports that Iraqi Republican Guard units around Baghdad may have been given orders to use chemical weapons on advancing coalition forces. Elsewhere, Brooks said coalition special operations forces continue to support conventional forces by calling in close air support on military targets, including the destruction the previous night of the Ba'ath Party headquarters in As Samawah. He said conventional ground forces from the U.S. Fifth Corps sustained a few damaged vehicles, and inflicted significant damage on the Iraqi force during a three-to-four hour series of engagements that occurred southeast of An Najaf. British forces conducted aggressive patrols in the Al Faw area and in the port city of Umm Qasr to increase security in those areas, he said. They also conducted a raid that destroyed a Ba'ath Party headquarters in Al Basrah, he said. Brooks said operations at Al Basrah are "very confusing." "We saw fighting in the city between Iraqis -- some in uniform, some not." He said fighting there is among different groups, according to British reports. Six oil wells in the Ar Rumaylah oil fields are on fire, though with the help of the Kuwaiti Oil Company one oil well fire was put out March 25, Brooks said. (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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