Iraqi Warheads Test Negative For Chemical Agents

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -- U.N. arms inspectors have concluded that the 122 mm chemical rocket warheads found in an Iraqi bunker earlier this month did not contain any chemical agents, diplomats said on Wednesday. The inspectors had sent one of the warheads that appeared to be filled to a laboratory for tests that turned out negative, chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix told U.N. Security Council members, the envoys reported. Iraq said the rocket warheads were overlooked from a 1991 batch of some 2,000 warheads. They were found at Ukhaider, an ammunition storage area, 75 miles (120 km) south of Baghdad in a relatively new bunker, which the inspectors said meant they were moved there in recent years, A few days later Iraqi officials reported another four chemical rockets found at another storage depot. Blix in his critical report to the Security Council on Monday said the discovery of a few rocket warheads did not solve the problem of what happened to thousands of other warheads not accounted for in Iraq's 12,000-page arms declaration submitted to the United Nations on December 7. "The finding of the rockets shows that Iraq needs to make more effort to ensure that its declaration is currently accurate," he said in the report.

Was this ever reported anywhere in the establishment media?