The New York Times says terrorists of the so-called “Islamic State” may have obtained access to chemical weapons made in the West and supplied to Saddam Hussein when he was using them to attack Iran. These weapons were not destroyed during the Anglo-US occupation, although US troops had located them.
According to the New York Times (The Secret Casualties of Iraq’s Abandoned Chemical Weapons – NYTimes.com):
“In all, American troops secretly reported finding roughly 5,000 chemical warheads, shells or aviation bombs . . .”
Source: New York Times
“As Iraq has been shaken anew by violence, and past security gains have collapsed amid Sunni-Shiite bloodletting and the rise of the Islamic State, this long-hidden chronicle illuminates the persistent risks of the country’s abandoned chemical weapons.
Source: New York Times
“Many chemical weapons incidents clustered around the ruins of the Muthanna State Establishment, the center of Iraqi chemical agent production in the 1980s.
“Since June, the compound has been held by the Islamic State, the world’s most radical and violent jihadist group.
“In a letter sent to the United Nations this summer, the Iraqi government said that about 2,500 corroded chemical rockets remained on the grounds, and that Iraqi officials had witnessed intruders looting equipment before militants shut down the surveillance cameras.
“The United States government says the abandoned weapons no longer pose a threat. But nearly a decade of wartime experience showed that old Iraqi chemical munitions often remained dangerous when repurposed for local attacks in makeshift bombs, as insurgents did starting by 2004.
“Participants in the chemical weapons discoveries said the United States suppressed knowledge of finds for multiple reasons, including that the government bristled at further acknowledgment it had been wrong. . .
“In five of six incidents in which troops were wounded by chemical agents, the munitions appeared to have been designed in the United States, manufactured in Europe and filled in chemical agent production lines built in Iraq by Western companies.
“Nonproliferation officials said the Pentagon’s handling of many of the recovered warheads and shells appeared to violate the Convention on Chemical Weapons. According to this convention, chemical weapons must be secured, reported and destroyed in an exacting and time-consuming fashion.”
For full New York Times story go to: The Secret Casualties of Iraq’s Abandoned Chemical Weapons – NYTimes.com.
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