The US government is taking a cautious approach to the discovery of metal drums in Iraq which some are suggesting may contain chemical weapons. Deaglan de Breadun in Doha and Jack Fairweather in Basra report
Paratroops from the US Army's 101st Airborne Division found the suspicious containers at a site near Hindiyah, some 60 miles to the south of Baghdad.
Initial tests suggested that a number of barrels had traces of the nerve agents, sarin and tabun, and the blister agent, lewisite. But officials cautioned that the substances might also be simple pesticides.
The assertion that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction lay behind the decision by the US and UK to go to war. Confirmation would be seized upon by both as post facto justification, especially in the face of Iraqi insistance that the country had disposed of all such weapons.
Samples have been taken from the site to be tested at laboratories in the US before the true nature of the find can be assessed.
"We have to take our time and look at it," the Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, said at the Pentagon last night. He cautioned that first reports should be treated with care and pointed out that transporting the samples back to the US and carrying out thorough tests could take some time.
"This could be either some type of pesticide, because this was an agricultural compound," Gen Benjamin Freakly told CNN at the scene. "On the other hand, it could be a chemical agent, not weaponised."
The most notorious example of chemical weapons being used by the Iraqi regime occurred in March 1988, when 5,000 Kurds were gassed at Halabja, in northern Iraq. British forces are now claiming that the alleged perpetrator of that attack, Gen Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Chemical Ali, was probably killed in a recent coalition attack.
In a day of dramatic developments yesterday, US forces moved into the centre of Baghdad, virtually unopposed, and took over several government buildings, including two of President Saddam's palaces. The Iraqis denied anything had happened.
And in Iraq's second city, Basra, British troops were yesterday walking around in the centre of town after completing their occupation. Crowds gathered in the morning to welcome the soldiers from the 7th Armoured Brigade and 16 Air Assault who took part in the operation, as the militia units who had defended the city fled or went into hiding.
The occupation which had followed a cautious two-week siege of the city was hailed yesterday by a senior British officer as "a great success". "We have secured all Basra's critical civilian and military infrastructure over the past 24 hours. There has been little or no resistance," he said.
Aid is expected to begin reaching the city tomorrow to answer the need of people in Basra for fresh water and food, and particularly medical supplies. But yesterday most Iraqis seemed to be concerned with a mixture of celebrating the removal of the regime and looting the vacated Baath Party headquarters.