wojo!!!!
23.03.03, 17:48
Pierwsza ukryta nielegalna iracka fabryka chemiczna wpadla w rece
Koalicji
Mar. 23, 2003
EXCLUSIVE: US TROOPS CAPTURE CHEMICAL PLANT
By CAROLINE GLICK
An Najaf, Iraq
Caroline B. Glick
About 30 Iraqi troops, including a general, surrendered today to US forces
of the 3rd Infantry Division as they overtook huge installation apparently
used to produce chemical weapons in An Najaf, some 250 kilometers south of
Baghdad.
One soldier was lightly wounded when a booby-trapped explosive went off as
he was clearing the sheet metal-lined facility, which resembles the eery
images of scientific facilities in World War II concentration camps.
The huge 100-acre complex, which is surrounded by a electrical fence, is
perhaps the first illegal chemical plant to be uncovered by US troops in
their current mission in Iraq. The surrounding barracks resemble an
abandoned slum.
It wasn't immediately clear exactly which chemicals were being produced
here, but clearly the Iraqis tried to camouflage the facility so it could
not be photographed aerially, by swathing it in sand-cast walls to make it
look like the surrounding desert.
Within minutes of our entry into the camp on Sunday afternoon, at least 30
Iraqi soldiers and their commanding officer of the rank of General, obeyed
the instructions of US soldiers who called out from our jeep in loudspeakers
for them to lie down on the ground, and put their hands above their heads to
surrender.
Today's operation is the third engagement with Iraqi forces by the First
Brigade of the US army's 3rd Infantry Division, since Saturday afternoon.
So far in the campaign, the brigade has suffered no losses. But two were
wounded Saturday night in an ambush on the outskirts of As-Samwah in
southern Iraq.
