Iraq 'preparing elite troops for chemical warfare'

Iraqi documents, obtained by the BBC, appear to suggest that Saddam Hussein is preparing to use chemical weapons against Western troops in the event of war.

The notes, hand-written in Arabic, state that elite units of the Iraqi military have been issued with new chemical warfare suits and supplies of the drug atropine, used to counter the effects of nerve gas.

They were passed on to the BBC by the Iraqi National Coalition opposition group, which claims to have received them from serving members of Baghdad's military during secret meetings, the Radio 4 Today programme reported.

The documents were brought out of Iraq within the past month have been verified by three different experts, according to the programme.

They suggest that the chemical suits and anti-nerve gas drugs have been smuggled into Iraq from neighbouring countries.

Also included are details of methods for attacking ships in the Gulf region.

The documents suggest that the new chemical suits and atropine, which protect against the nerve gases sarin and VX, have been issued to the Republican Guard and Special Republican Guard, Saddam's most loyal and feared military units.

They also include details of testing of unmanned submarines designed to attack ships in the Gulf and information on fibre-optic radar systems and plans of the layout of presidential palaces.

The Secretary General of the Iraqi National Coalition Tawfik al-Yassiri is a former Brigadier-General in the Iraqi army and claims that his organisation has extensive contacts within Saddam's military.

He told the Today programme: "We received the documents from inside Iraq, passed by people who left Iraq.

"We have checked the information in other ways. We have members in our organisation in most of the camps and cities in Iraq, from soldiers to generals."

Toby Dodge, an Iraq specialist from Warwick University, looked at the documents for the programme.

He said: "The documents that you have supplied me seem to be genuine and they would represent what my best analysis of Iraqi planning would be for the coming conflict.

"If you look at Iraqi troop deployments, these groups would be the recipients of all that Saddam had, in training and modern weapons and in chemical and biological weapons protection apparatus."

Bill Tierney, a former UN weapons inspector, told Today: "The key point is that the Republican Guard have been issued this new equipment.

"During inspections, I have seen their standard decontamination equipment is 1960s Soviet-model and not very good at all.

"If both these two units have new equipment, then it would indicate that they are prepared to use chemical weapons. The Iraqis' standard chemical weapon is mustard gas, but they were keen on developing VX.

"The fact that they have imported atropine is an indicator that they are willing to use VX."

A former CIA station chief in northern Iraq, Bob Bear, said that if the opposition was receiving information from elite military units, it suggested that Saddam was in danger of mutiny among those closest to him.

He told the programme: "The Special Republican Guard is controlled by Saddam's family.

"This means that they really want Saddam to go. If this information is from the Special Republican Guard, then maybe Saddam is closer to the end than we expect."