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U.S.: No Sign of Iraq Bio-Weapons Yet
Severely edited to stay on target.U.S. special operations troops combing Iraq for Scud missiles and chemical or biological weapons have found none so far, a senior American military officer said Saturday. Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the vice director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon news conference that the Iraqis have not fired any Scuds and that U.S. forces searching airfields in the far western desert of Iraq have uncovered no missiles or launchers. Iraq denies having any Scuds, which have sufficient range to reach Israel, but Gen. Tommy Franks, who is running the war, said Saturday that Iraq has yet to account for about two dozen Scuds that United Nations inspectors have said were left over from the 1991 Gulf War. "Mr. President, incredible as it seems, it appears that the Iraqis were telling the truth." "My bad, Don." Iraq also denies it holds any chemical or biological weapons. McChrystal said the United States will either bomb any such weapons it should find or seize them with ground forces, whichever is safer. With U.S. ground forces advancing toward Baghdad, Pentagon officials expressed concerns the troops might come across Republican Guard troops armed with chemical weapons. "We would be hopeful that those with their triggers on these weapons understand what Secretary Don Rumsfeld said in his comments yesterday: `Don't use it. Don't use it,'" Franks, the top U.S. war commander, said Saturday at a news conference at his Persian Gulf command post. Anybody home in Baghdad to give the order to use these weapons? That bunker shot the first night might have been the single best thing done so far. Posted by: Steve White 2003-03-22 |
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