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A US
weapons team arrived in southern Iraq yesterday to begin
probing a cache of mortar shells leaking a substance that early
tests indicate could be a harmful chemical agent, a Danish military
spokesperson said.
Major Kim Gruenberger said initial tests on the shells by Danish
experts who recovered the cache near the southern city of Basra
showed they contained a blistering agent similar to substances used
in chemical weapons.
"We have made a very simple first indication ourselves, which
showed that this could be (a blistering agent), but this is not
accurate, that's why the Americans are here," he said.
Gruenberger said results of the in-depth tests would not be known
for several days.
On Saturday, US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said up to 40 120 mm
shells wrapped in plastic and oozing a potentially toxic substance
had been found near the town of Al-Qurna, north of Basra.
"We're doing some preliminary tests on those to be sure that if
they do contain any kind of blistering agent they will be disposed
of," he told reporters.
Kimmitt, deputy director of operations of the US-led coalition,
said the shells were probably left over from the 1980-1988
Iran-Iraq war.
Alleged manufacture of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was one of
the main justifications for last spring's US invasion of Iraq, but
despite several false alarms the coalition has found no real
evidence of banned weapons.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair suggested Sunday that Saddam
Hussein's alleged WMDs may never be found in Iraq.
"In a land mass twice the size of the UK it may well not be
surprising you don't find where this stuff is hidden", Blair told
BBC television. – Sapa.
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