US claim to find chemical agents

US troops today claimed to have found thousands of boxes of white powder, nerve agent antidote and Arabic documents on how to wage chemical warfare at an industrial site south of Baghdad.

Col John Peabody, an engineer brigade commander with the 3rd Infantry Division, said the materials were found at the Latifiyah industrial complex just south of the Iraqi capital.

“It is clearly a suspicious site,” he 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.