US reports 'suspicious' powder finds

US troops today said they found thousands of vials of white powder at two sites near Baghdad.

Firstly, a US officer said his troops found thousands of boxes of white powder, nerve agent antidote and Arabic documents on how to engage in chemical warfare at an industrial site south of the capital.

Col. John Peabody, engineer brigade commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, said the materials were found at the Latifiyah industrial complex. He said: "It is clearly a suspicious site."

Troops had found thousands of boxes, each of which contained three vials of white powder, together with documents written in Arabic that dealt with how to engage in chemical warfare.

He also said they discovered atropine, used to counter the effects of nerve agents.

The facility had been identified by the International Atomic Energy Agency as a suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons site. UN inspectors visited the plant at least nine times, including as recently as 18 February.

The facility is part of a larger complex known as the Latifiyah Explosives and Ammunition Plant al Qa Qaa.

During the 1991 Gulf War, US jets bombed the plant.

Later, further vials of unidentified liquid and white powder were reported at a second site nearby.