Outside the Beltway

Chemical Weapons Lab Found in Falluja

James Joyner · Thursday, November 25, 2004 · 1 comment

Chemical Weapons Lab Found in Falluja -Iraq Minister (Reuters)

A laboratory for the manufacture of chemical weapons has been found in Falluja, an Iraqi minister said on Thursday, but Marines in the city said they were not aware of any such discovery. “Soldiers from the Iraqi National Guard found a chemical laboratory that was used to prepare deadly explosives and poisons,” Minister of State Kassim Daoud told a news conference. “They also found in the lab booklets and instructions on how to make bombs and poisons. They even talked about the production of anthrax.”

On Wednesday, Marines in Falluja said they had found a banner of the insurgent group led by Jordanian al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a chemicals laboratory in Falluja. But they said there was no indication the lab was used to produce chemical weapons.

It was not clear whether Daoud was referring to the same laboratory. Marines said on Thursday they were not aware of any additional laboratories being discovered, and were skeptical that evidence had been found of the manufacture of chemical weapons.

Interesting. I saw this story earlier on the Fox News Channel crawl and it was being reported without qualification. The one may well not pan out.