Pentagon says high risk of chemical attack

Intelligence reports indicate there is a high risk Iraq would use chemical weapons during a US-led war to topple President Saddam Hussein, Pentagon officials have warned.

The Iraqi leader has reportedly given field-level commanders the authority to use chemical weapons on their own initiative, without further orders from Baghdad, they said.

“We continue to receive reports supporting the assertion that there is a high risk the Iraqi regime would use chemical weapons at some point during any conflict,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

It was the first explicit statement from the US Defence Department discussing the chemical weapons risk.

Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said he does not believe Saddam’s government will use chemical or biological weapons, even as a last resort, because it would turn world opinion in favour of the United States.

“Some people care about their reputation even after death,” he said.

US President George Bush and other American officials say Iraq has stocks of chemical weapons, including the deadly nerve agents sarin, cyclosarin and VX and a mustard agent like that used in the First World War.

Saddam has repeatedly denied having chemical or biological weapons, the use of which has been outlawed for decades, but Iraq has acknowledged developing both before the 1991 Gulf War and used them several times in the 1980s.

US officials say they believe Iraq’s chemical weapons are under the control of the Republican Guard, Saddam’s best trained and most loyal troops.

A large part of those forces is concentrated in and around Baghdad, where US officials worry fighting involving chemical weapons could kill many Iraqi civilians.

Most of Iraq’s chemical arsenal, officials say, is loaded onto artillery and rockets that have a range of about a dozen miles or less.

Pentagon officials who discussed the chemical weapons issue said it was unclear what rank of Iraqi officers had been authorised to order the use of chemical weapons.

Officials said it was doubtful the chemical authority went as low as company-level commanders, who are usually at captain’s rank.

Coalition troops awaiting invasion orders have chemical protection gear and equipment that can detect clouds of chemical agents up to three miles away.

American tanks and armoured vehicles have filters designed to keep the troops inside safe from the deadly agents.

Anticipating the possibility of chemical combat, US troops have trained extensively on operating in a contaminated environment.

All of Iraq’s chemical agents except sarin can linger in an area for hours or days. VX, the deadliest chemical weapon known, is a sticky liquid that is particularly long lasting and difficult to decontaminate.

US officials have said they believe Iraq is most likely to use chemical weapons to cover a retreat or put down an internal uprising.

Because US forces are so well protected, chemical weapons could be used in an attempt to slow an American onslaught or keep the US forces out of a particular area, rather than to kill large numbers of US troops, officials said.

A chemical attack against Iraqi civilians could also bog down US troops by creating a humanitarian crisis the American forces could not ignore.

In his war ultimatum given on Monday, Bush explicitly warned Iraqi troops against using chemical or biological weapons, especially against Iraqi civilians.

US military leaflets, radio broadcasts and e-mails have carried similar warnings that any officers involved in chemical weapons use would be prosecuted on war crimes charges.