Global Security Newswire

Iraq had chemical weapons before the U.S.-led invasion, but might have shipped them to Syria or buried the munitions before the war, the Israeli military chief of staff said in an interview published today (see GSN, March 29).

Russian Tupolev-16 and Sukhoi aircraft, along with unmanned drones, were being fitted to carry up to hundreds of kilograms of chemical agents, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon told the Yediot Ahronot newspaper, according to the Associated Press.

“There is no doubt that in the eight months leading up to the war, the Iraqis prepared an ability to deliver by air chemical weapons, at least at us,” Yaalon said.

The planes were destroyed in the opening days of the war, Yaalon said, but the weapons were better hidden.

“Perhaps they transferred them to another country, such as Syria,” he said. “We very clearly saw that something crossed into Syria. Perhaps they (the Iraqis) buried them,” Yaalon added (Laurie Copans, Associated Press/Ireland Online, April 26).