04 April 2003
U.S. Forces Find Iraqi Chemical Warfare Training Center
(Central Command Report, April 4: Iraq Operational Update) (850) Washington -- U.S. forces have discovered a complex that may have been used by the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to develop and construct chemical weapons, and another complex that is believed to be a nuclear, biological and chemical warfare training school, a U.S. Central Command briefing officer says. U.S. Army Special Forces found a site in western Iraq near Mudaysis that probably was used as a nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) warfare training center for the Iraqi Army, Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said April 4 at the daily CENTCOM briefing at Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar. During the briefing Brooks showed an image of an array of brown-tinted bottles with yellow labels that are similar to the containers in which chemicals are customarily stored, and one was clearly marked "Tabun," a known chemical warfare agent. "Some of these were taken away and testing is ongoing. But we think that there may have been an explanation for this as an NBC training school, not an operational facility," Brooks said. "We believe that was the only sample. That's why we believe it was a training site." The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) identifies "Tabun" as a man-made chemical warfare agent classified as a nerve agent. Nerve agents are the most toxic and rapidly acting of the known chemical warfare agents, a CDC fact sheet says. Tabun was originally developed as a pesticide in Germany in 1936, and it is a clear, colorless, tasteless liquid with a faint fruity odor, the CDC says. "We know that the Iraqis have conducted chemical training," Brooks said. "We've seen it in a number of places we've gone throughout the country." U.S. troops also found thousands of boxes of an unspecified white powder substance, small vials of unidentified liquids, atropine nerve agent antidote autoinjectors, and an array of Arabic documents detailing how to engage in chemical warfare at the Latifiyah industrial complex 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of the Iraqi capital and east of the Euphrates River, he said. This site, part of a larger complex known as the Latifiyah Explosives and Ammunition Plant, was already identified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as a suspected NBC weapons site, and had been inspected a number of times. "We believe that this regime does possess weapons of mass destruction," Brooks said. "We remain convinced of that. We know that some of those may have been pulled into the Baghdad area, either delivery systems or potentially storage systems. "But let's remember that this regime has been involved in a campaign of denial and deception for decades and has been very effective at it. And so we don't expect that we're just going to walk up on any WMD." Brooks also said that elements of the 3rd Infantry Division, led by a squadron of the U.S. 7th Cavalry, have seized the international airport west of Baghdad, formerly known as Saddam International Airport, in overnight fighting. "The airport now has a new name, Baghdad International Airport, and it is the gateway to the future of Iraq," Brooks said. He said the airport is unusable for normal commercial air operations, but other operations may be possible, though he would not elaborate. He said there are underground facilities at the airport and they require further clearance by coalition troops. "It's an ongoing process. We don't know what we'll find there," Brooks said. Brooks also emphasized that coalition forces did not cause electric power to be lost in Baghdad during the nighttime attack on the international airport. As the attack began, electricity to major portions of the city was cut off. He said it is not part of the coalition's plan to damage electric power generation stations in Baghdad because electricity is too important to the people of the city and the services that depend on it. A car bomb explosion April 4 at a military checkpoint 11 miles (about 17.6 kilometers) southeast of the strategic Hadithah Dam area apparently killed the driver of the car, a pregnant woman riding with him, and three coalition troops, he said. Two other coalition troops were wounded by the blast, he said. The pregnant woman got out of the car and was seen screaming for assistance before the explosion, he said. In other operations, Brooks said: -- Approximately 2,500 Iraqi Republican Guard troops surrendered to coalition forces southeast of Baghdad April 4. -- British forces operating in the south continued to expand their influence by ridding al Basrah of Iraqi paramilitary death squads. Aggressive patrols beyond Basrah resulted in the seizure of a cache of 56 surface-to-surface, short-range ballistic missiles, and four missile launchers in the vicinity of al Zubair, which is just northwest of Basrah. -- The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force continued its attack toward Baghdad, destroying remnants of the Baghdad Republican Guard Division near al Kut, and elements of the Al Nida Republican Guard Division between al Kut and Baghdad. (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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