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- WORLD, Page 45World NotesIRAQThe Poison This Time
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- Iraq came under widespread criticism last year after it
- killed hundreds and perhaps thousands of Kurdish villagers with a
- chemical-weapons attack in the gulf war. Now U.S. officials
- confirm that Baghdad has been developing yet another form of
- warfare expressly banned by international law: biological
- weapons.
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- While chemical substances cause fatal gas burns in the
- lungs, germ warfare is designed to spawn epidemics of deadly
- diseases such as typhoid, cholera and anthrax. So far, there
- appears to be no evidence that Iraq has deployed germ warfare,
- despite allegations last September by Kurdish rebels that an
- outbreak of typhoid was caused by an Iraqi attack. But a
- purported document captured by Kurdish guerrillas a year ago
- refers to an inventory of "chemical and biological" materials in
- the hands of the Iraqi army. Dated Aug. 3, 1986, the document
- was released by London-based officials of the Kurdish
- Democratic Party.
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- According to Pentagon sources, Iraq is among at least nine
- nations developing biological weapons. The others: the Soviet
- Union, China, North Korea, Taiwan, Egypt, Israel, Iran and
- Syria.
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