
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 5, 1991                   TAG: 9103050221
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA                                LENGTH: Short

U.S. TROOPS NOT FINDING IRAQI CHEMICAL WEAPONS

U.S. forces searching captured Iraqi bases and scouring the battlefield have found Iraqi warplanes, artillery pieces, huge amounts of ammunition but also a puzzling lack of any sign of chemical weapons.

Search teams have failed to discover chemical munitions or clear evidence that the munitions were ever present, according to officers at the American military command, despite Saddam Hussein's repeated threats that his forces would use weapons of mass destruction.

Captured Iraqi soldiers have told interrogators that chemical weapons existed but have invariably added that no such weapons were in their own units, an officer said. Allied soldiers also turned up no evidence that Iraq had chemical warheads for its Scud missiles.

The searches are part of the Pentagon's intensive effort to examine the effects of the latest U.S. weapons and ordnance against different types of targets, including hardened shelters, underground bunkers, artillery and advanced Soviet tanks.

- The Baltimore Sun

by CNB