§ Lord Clement-Jonesasked Her Majesty's Government:
When they first knew that sarin and cyclosarin were involved in the fall-out from the demolition by United States forces of the Iraqi chemical arms bunkers at Khamisiyah in March 1991, to which British troops were exposed; and why this information was not included in the paper The 1990/ 1991 Gulf Conflict: Health and Personnel Related 198WA Lessons Identified, published by the Ministry of Defence on 4 November. [HL4937]
§ Lord BachThe Ministry of Defence was first made aware of the presence of sarin and cyclosarin at Khamisiyah upon publication of a CIA paper entitledCIA Report on Intelligence Related to Gulf War Illness on 2 August 1996.
The MOD published their initial assessment of the events at Khamisiyah in a paper entitled Review of Events Concerning 32 Field Hospital and the Release of Nerve Agent Arising from US Demolition of Iraqi Munitions at the Khamisiyah Depot in March 1991. This paper concluded that the potential levels of nerve agent released would have been of too low a level to have had any biologically detectable effect on troops. Therefore, issues around Khamisiyah have not been included in the recent "Lessons Identified" paper.
The MOD is currently undertaking an assessment of the recently published findings of the US Department of Defense and the General Accountability Office modelling work. This will be published by the end of the year.