The Hindu : WMD found in Iraq?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 08, 2003

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WMD found in Iraq?

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

NEAR BAGHDAD April 7. The Pentagon has not formally responded to a report that U.S. forces have stumbled on weapons of mass destruction — a cache of some 20 medium-range missiles equipped with potent chemical weapons.

This report came from the National Public Radio (NPR), which attributed it to a top official of the First Marine Division. Apparently, the missiles were of the BM-21 variety and equipped with sarin and mustard gas and were "ready to fire". The official said that new intelligence data has showed that the chemicals were "not just trace elements".

The cache was supposedly found by U.S. Marines following the Army's 101st Airborne Division after the seizure of the Saddam Hussein International Airport, now renamed the Baghdad International Airport.

Meanwhile, there was another report on television that American troops had found suspicious material while seizing and securing Iraq's Atomic Energy Agency headquarters. According to this version, troops found jars and packets of unidentified material and gas masks.

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