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U.N. destroying mustard gas shells
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.N. weapons inspectors Wednesday were to begin destroying 10 artillery shells filled with potentially deadly mustard gas that were found by previous inspection teams. The chemical inspectors arrived at the al-Muthanna research and production facility -- believed to have been Iraq's chemical weapons center during the 1980s -- to start destroying the ammunition. The destruction process comes as British Prime Minister Tony Blair said inspectors "can have as much time as they need" if Iraq is cooperating -- stressing that the U.N. Security Council must decide the level of Iraq's cooperation. (Full story) Working with an Iraqi team, the inspectors will need four or five days to destroy the mustard gas shells. The shells were catalogued by previous U.N. inspection teams in Iraq in the mid-1990s, but those inspectors were unable to destroy the shells before pulling out of Iraq in 1998. Mustard gas -- one of the most potent chemical weapons -- is a potentially deadly chemical agent that attacks the skin and eyes. First used by German troops in World War I, the gas causes severe blisters and, if inhaled, can damage the lungs and other organs. It received its name because of its yellow color and mustard-like smell. After inspectors returned to Iraq in 2002, a chemical team went to al-Muthanna in early December, found the artillery shells and secured them. The U.N. inspectors stressed at the time that the ammunition was expected to be there and not a sign of an active chemical weapons program. Previous inspection teams destroyed thousands of chemical weapons shells and agents at al-Muthanna, according to U.N. officials. Al-Muthanna, which was heavily bombed during the 1991 Gulf War, was once Iraq's chief production center for chemical and biological weapons, producing agents such as anthrax, mustard gas and the agent that causes botulism. In other searches Wednesday, weapons inspections teams visited three sites: • A team of chemical experts visited the Al Qadisyyah Project in Baghdad, according to the Iraqi information ministry. • A team of missile experts and a team of nuclear inspectors headed separately to two undisclosed sites, the ministry said.
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