Nerve agent said in warheads

July 02, 2004|Associated Press

WARSAW -- Polish troops have found two warheads in Iraq believed to contain a deadly nerve agent, but it is not clear what period the weapons came from, the Defense Ministry said yesterday.

The two warheads were found in early June in a bunker in the area controlled by Polish forces, and they tested positive for cyclosarin, a substance many times stronger than sarin, the ministry said in a statement.

''There is no doubt that the warheads contain chemical weapons," Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski told TVN24. ''The problem is what period they came from, whether the [Persian] Gulf War or earlier, and whether they were usable, partly usable or not at all."

Another dozen were found later in June and were being tested in Baghdad and the United States, he said. ''Some of them are very corroded. They are probably not usable, but are dangerous to the local environment," he said.

In May, an artillery shell apparently filled with the sarin nerve agent was discovered at the side of the road in Baghdad by US forces.

Officials at the time stopped short of claiming the munition was definite evidence of a large weapons stockpile in prewar Iraq or evidence of recent production by Saddam Hussein's regime.

Poland commands some 6,200 international troops -- including some 2,400 from Poland -- in south-central Iraq.