Libya's supply of chemical weapons completely destroyed - report
3 February 2014, 20:30
Libya's supply of mustard gas has been completely destroyed with help from the United States and other countries, the New York Times reported Monday.
The United States and Libya discreetly destroyed the arsenal of chemical arms in the past three months, the New York Times reported. The arsenal included hundreds of bombs and artillery rounds filled with deadly mustard agent dating back to the regime of Moamer Gaddafi.
'This is the culmination of a major international effort to eliminate weapons of mass destruction from Libya and to ensure that they never fall into the hands of terrorists,' Andrew C Weber, assistant secretary of defence for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, was quoted by the Times as saying.
The destruction of Libya's chemical weapons began in 2004 when Libya joined the Chemical Weapons Convention. At the time it declared 24.7 metric tons of mustard gas, 1,390 metric tons of precursor chemicals and 3,563 aerial bombs containing chemical weapons.
After Gaddafi was toppled by a popular uprising and killed in October 2011 the new Libyan leadership discovered nearly 2 tons of mustard gas that was already loaded into hundreds of bombs and artillery shells.
The weapons were destroyed using a special oven in the desert. The technology came from a Swedish company, and the Libyan contractors were trained in Germany, the Times reported.
Voice of Russia, dpa
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