US forces last night claimed to have found a "huge" chemical weapons factory near the Iraqi city of Najaf, about 100 miles south of Baghdad.
Pentagon officials said the facility was seized by the First Brigade of the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division as soldiers advanced north toward Baghdad.
About 30 Iraqi troops surrendered, including the commanding general, to US forces as they overtook the installation, apparently used to produce chemical weapons, the Jerusalem Postreported.
Although the Iraqi troops surrendered without a fight, one US soldier was lightly wounded when a booby-trap exploded as he was clearing the facility, the report said.
It was not clear what chemicals were being produced at the 100-acre complex, but reports said the Iraqis tried to camouflage the facility so it looked like the surrounding desert and would not be spotted from the air.
ABC News cited one unidentified official as saying of the captured Iraqi general: "He is a potential gold mine of evidence about the weapons Saddam Hussein said he does not have".
But US defence officials urged caution about the reports. "Confirmation of any [chemical weapons] site would require a thorough investigation and take some time," said one official.