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Pre-War Evidence for WMD in Iraq
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Pre-War Evidence for WMD in Iraq
|
| Middle East | peacewatch | top stories | documents | culture | dialog | history | Maps | donations |
A detailed timeline of Iraqi history is given here, including links to UN resolutions
Iraq
books
Map of Iraq
Map of Kuwait Detailed
Map of Iraq Map of Baghdad
Street Map of Baghdad
Iraq Weapons of Mass Destruction
The motive for the Iraq war was the evidence or suspicion that Iraq had continued to develop weapons of mass destruction, bolstered by Iraq's long history of use of such weapons and defiance of UN inspections. This motive became controversial when, after the invasion of Iraq in March-April 2003, the US and Britain did not immediately find conclusive evidence for weapons of mass destruction. Some of the evidence that the allies had relied upon, showing that Iraq was continuing to develop nuclear weapons, was apparently forged.
Iraq engaged in massive development of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, and of missiles and mobile launchers to deliver these weapons, since 1991. Biological and chemical warfare have been outlawed since World War I. Iraq did not, apparently, use these weapons during operation Desert Storm, though it had used them previously against Iran and the Kurds. An Israeli expert, Uzi Rubin, concluded in 2000 that Iraq had approximately 50 Al-Husayn missiles of the type used to attack Israel (Jane's Defense Weekly, March 1, 2000). Other sources estimate about 25 missiles are unaccounted for. UNSCOM estimated that as many as 100 may remain.
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Al-Hussein Missile |
Missile Carrier |
Document - Hans Blix's Report on Inspections - March 7, 2003
Summary of Iraqi WMD Capabilities
This material is taken from the
SIPRI
Iraq-UNSCOM fact Sheet. Since it was prepared, UN inspectors concluded that Iraq had also weaponized VX.
According to different estimates about 20-100 Al-Hussein Scud missiles of the type used against Israel and Saudi
Arabia in 1991. When inspections stopped in 1998, UNSCOM inspectors
had concluded that there was no way to verify that Iraq had destroyed all of its stores of
biological,
chemical and other agents, including quantities
of aflatoxin and approximately 500 R-400 aerial bombs that had been filled with biological warfare agents.
Biological weapons
1. Holdings declared by Iraq *
|
Anthrax |
8 400 litres |
|
Botulinum toxin |
19 000 litres |
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Clostridium (gas gangrene) |
3 400 litres |
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Aflatoxin |
2 200 litres |
|
Ricin |
10 litres |
2. Bacterial Warfare munitions
|
Scud missile warheads (al-Hussein) |
25 |
|
anthrax |
5 |
|
botulinum toxin |
16 |
|
aflatoxin |
4 |
|
Aerial bombs |
157 |
|
anthrax |
50 |
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botulinum toxin |
100 |
|
aflatoxin |
7 |
|
Aerial dispensers |
4 |
3. Other munitions tested for BW
155-mm artillery shells
Artillery rockets
MiG-21 drone
Aerosol generators
Chemical weapons
1. Holdings declared by Iraq
|
Mustard gas |
500-600 tonnes |
|
G agents (sarin, tabun) |
100-150 tonnes |
|
VX ** |
50-100 tonnes |
* In addition 39 tonnes of growth medium required
for BW production were imported in 1988, of which 17 tonnes remain unaccounted for. The litre unit, however, gives no
indication of the concentration of the agent in the slurry.
** UNSCOM estimates that 50-100 tonnes were produced before 1990. Iraq declared 3.9 tonnes produced between 1988 and
1990 and unilaterally destroyed.
2. CW munitions
Aerial bombs (of which 3 contained VX)
Aerial spray dispensers
1 122-mm rocket containing VX
120-mm rockets
Ballistic missiles
|
Scud B (300-km range) |
819 operational |
|
al-Hussein (650-km range) |
in development |
|
al-Abbas (950-km range) |
in development |
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SS-21 short-range ballistic missile launcher turned over to UNSCOM in 1995 |
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|
al-Samoud missile (150-km range) |
In process of destruction after UNMOVIC determined these missiles violate UN Security Council Resolution 687 |
To February 1998, UNSCOM destroyed or supervised the
destruction of:
38 537 filled and empty CW munitions
480 000 litres (690 tonnes) of CW agents
3000 tonnes of precursor chemicals
8 types of delivery systems
The al-Hakam BW production facility
48 Scud missiles
6 operational mobile launchers
28 operational fixed launch pads
32 fixed launch pads under construction
30 chemical warheads
14 conventional warheads
Other related equipment
Iraq claims to have unilaterally destroyed all its missiles, but UNSCOM has only been able to verify the destruction
of:
83 Scud missiles
9 mobile launchers
426 pieces of CW production equipment
91 pieces of related analytical instruments
Iraq claims to have consumed 2870 tonnes of CW agent in the period 1981-88, but UNSCOM has not been able to verify this. The following items remain unaccounted for:
Scud missile components, warheads and propellant
17 tonnes of growth media for the production of BW agents
Items of CW production equipment
4000 tonnes of CW precursors
750 tonnes of VX precursors
100 al-Hussein missiles
31 000 CW munitions
20 R-17 Scud-B -type missiles
40-70 CBW-capable missile warheads
Significant quantities of biological warfare agents
Significant quantities of 155-mm ammunition rounds
Sources
http://www.un.org/Depts/unscom/achievement.htm
http://www.janes.com/defence/features/iraq/sentmilitary.html
LINKS
At MidEastWeb:
A detailed timeline of Iraqi History 2003: Reports of UNMOVIC and IAEA to the UN British Government Dossier
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