US destroys ‘last’ of its declared chemical weapons

The US faced a deadline of September 30 to eliminate its remaining chemical weapons under the international Chemical Weapons Convention, which took effect in 1997 and was joined by 193 countries

Technicians work to destroy the United States’ chemical weapons stockpile (David Zalubowski/AP)

The United States has destroyed the last of its declared chemical weapons stockpile, a milestone in the history of warfare dating back to the First World War, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said,

Mr McConnell said in a statement that workers at Kentucky’s Blue Grass Army Depot have eliminated the last of thousands of rockets filled with GB nerve agent that are the last of the United States’ declared chemical weapons and completed a decades-long campaign to eliminate a stockpile that, by the end of the Cold War, totalled more than 30,000 tons (27,216 metric tonnes).