Bond-style cache reveals regime's deadly gadgetry

A bizarre weapons cache discovered in Baghdad, including briefcases fitted with sub-machine-guns, air pistols loaded with cyanide pellets and a bomb concealed inside a bottle of pills, has shed light on how Iraq's former regime disposed of its opponents.

Most of the James Bond-style weaponry was found in a house in a Baath party enclave near the Republican Palace. US commandos acting on a tip found other hidden bombs, one inside an umbrella and another in a phone.

The house also had a chemical laboratory and documents which, American troops said, were instructions on making chemical and biological weapons.

The addiction of Saddam Hussein and his family to firepower was shown by the earlier discovery of gold-plated and silver-plated rifles and pistols in an abandoned house belonging to the deposed dictator's oldest son, Uday. While these weapons were left behind, looters stole hundreds of Beretta 9mm pistols, leaving the boxes scattered on the floor. A crate of a dozen Austrian-made Steyr assault rifles was found, but many more had disappeared.

Internal security and intelligence was the responsibility of Uday's younger brother, Qusay, and what use the regime made of its lethal gadgetry is less clear.

Iraqi agents were alleged to have used poison to assassinate the dictator's opponents, particularly members of Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress. Safa al-Battat, an INC official who was poisoned in northern Iraq, flew to Britain for treatment.

Mr Chalabi himself, who has returned to Iraq, claims to have escaped numerous assassination attempts, including one bid to poison him. Last year, he is also said to have warned the UN's former chief arms inspector, Rolf Ekeus, of an Iraqi plot to kill him.