(COMTEX) B: Troops find vials of white powder, documents on engaging in chmical warfare near Baghdad
NEAR BAGHDAD, Iraq, Apr 04, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- U.S. troops
found thousands of boxes of white powder, nerve agent antidote and documents in
Arabic on how to engage in chemical warfare at an industrial site south of
Baghdad, a U.S. officer said Friday.
Col. John Peabody, engineer brigade commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, said
the materials were found Friday at the Latifiyah industrial complex, 40
kilometers (25 miles) south of Baghdad.
"It is clearly a suspicious site," Peabody said.
Peabody said troops found thousands of boxes, each of which contained three
vials of white powder, together with documents written in Arabic that dealt with
how to engage in chemical warfare.
He also said they discovered atropine, used to counter the effects of nerve
agents.
The facility had been identified by the International Atomic Energy Agency as a
suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons site. U.N. inspectors visited
the plant at least nine times, including as recently as Feb. 18.
The facility is part of a larger complex known as the Latifiyah Explosives and
Ammunition Plant al Qa Qaa.
During the 1991 Gulf War, U.S. jets bombed the plant.
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KEYWORD: NEAR BAGHDAD, Iraq
Eds: ADDS locator for complex, graf 2.
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