A stash of Iraqi training equipment for nuclear, biological and chemical warfare was discovered by British troops yesterday, including a Geiger counter, nerve gas simulators, gas masks and protective suits, British army sources said.
One of the chemicals found was marked in Russian and English with the name Sarin, a nerve gas which Saddam Hussein is suspected to have in his arsenal. The chemical appeared not to be a sample of Sarin but some sort of simulator used to test if Sarin was in the atmosphere. Nevertheless, it was marked "dangerous to humans if exposed for 10 minutes without a respirator".
Although the discovery did not provide "smoking gun" definitive proof to support allied claims that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, it showed that nuclear, biological and chemical weapons training was at least available to Iraqi forces.
"Until further tests are carried out on the vials of chemicals we have found here we do not know exactly what the material is," Capt Kevin Cooney of the Joint NBC Regiment said. - (PA)