U.S. Tests Show No Traces of WMD in Iraqi Shells

A fourth round of tests conducted on mortar shells found in Iraq 10 days ago by Danish troops has determined that they did not contain chemical weapons, contradicting field tests by British and Danish experts last week.

The results of the latest evaluation by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in Idaho were announced Sunday by the Danish Army Operational Command.

The results mirrored findings late last week by a U.S.-led Iraq Survey Group, which was dispatched to the site in Basra after the British and Danish tests indicated that the shells contained a form of mustard gas.

The Danish troops initially found 36 shells, exposed by rain, in the ground outside a village near Qurnah on Friday. They were leaking a liquid deemed suspicious, since mortars usually contain solid explosives.

"This was a stash. They were stacked and ordered and wrapped in plastic," Danish spokesman Capt. Kim Vibe Michelsen told the Associated Press.

Michelsen said the 120 mm shells "don't look like any known" mortars in the Iraqi arsenal.

Villagers in Qurnah told the Danish troops that they had found about 400 or more shells some years ago and threw them in the Tigris River.

The area was the scene of intense fighting during the Iran-Iraq war. The villagers told the Danes that one 1984 battle fought there lasted seven days.

When local residents retuned to Qurnah after the battle, all their cattle were dead and the area was littered with human bodies, Michelsen said he was told. None of the dead bore gunshot wounds, but all were bleeding from the mouth and nose - symptoms consistent with the use of mustard gas.

Some villagers also complained that they were coughing blood for some time afterward, and local livestock continued to sicken and bleed from the mouth.

"This is a clear indication of chemical weapons use," Michelsen told the AP.

The Danish Army Operational Command said it would try to determine the nature of the liquid that was in the Iraqi shells, why it tested positive for mustard gas and whether there was any link to past chemical weapons use in the area.

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