Chemical weapons have been found in Libya by National Transitional Council forces, a representative of the movement that ousted the late Muammar Gaddafi has said.
Residents carry a dead body that was found near the site of burning tankers, after an explosion on the outskirts of Sirte, Libya Photo: REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal
7:00AM BST 27 Oct 2011
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The NTC said the chemical warheads had been secured and would be made safe by experts.
"They are from the Gaddafi era and are under guard, until they can be handed over," an NTC representative said at a meeting between the council and NATO representatives in Qatar.
The discovery of the munitions proves that Gaddafi had refused to give up his weapons of mass destruction despite promising Tony Blair in 2004 he would relinquish them in the 'Deal in the Desert'.
Mr Blair has long claimed that he forced the dictator to give up his weapons of mass destruction programme. The disarming process was not finished because of the outbreak of war and the rebels feared Gaddafi would unleash deadly mustard gas and other chemicals on his own people.
Ian Martin, head of the UN mission in Libya, told a Security Council meeting that new previously undeclared sites for storing chemical weapons had been uncovered since the fall of Gaddafi's government.
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Gaddafi's regime had "accumulated the largest known stockpile of anti-aircraft missiles," Mr Martin said.
"Thousands were destroyed during NATO operations. But I have to report to you our increasing concerns over the looting and likely proliferation of MANPADS," or Man-Portable Air Defense Systems, Mr Martin told the 15-member Security Council.
He said munitions and large numbers of mines had also been looted.
Nuclear and chemical weapons materials are mainly controlled by National Transitional Council forces.
But Mr Martin noted that "it has become clearer that there are additional sites with previously undeclared chemical weapons or materials that the government is about to formally declare" to international inspectors.
International experts working with the NTC had identified MANPADS sites and storage areas, mainly in eastern Libya, though Martin cautioned that "hundreds" of suspected sites should still be inspected.
He said mines had been laid around many cities and that there were large quantities of unexploded bombs and missiles in Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte and in Bani Walid.
"In Tripoli, many stockpiles are suspected in residential areas, including in schools and hospitals, where they seem to have been moved by Kadhafi forces to conceal them from airstrikes. They mostly remain unsecured," Mr Martin said.
The surface-to-air missiles can be used against civilian jets and other ordnance can easily be converted into car bombs and roadside explosives, according to experts.
Human Rights Watch said that two unguarded sites it has inspected near Sirte contained surface-to-air missiles, tank and mortar rounds, large numbers of munitions and thousands of guided and unguided aerial weapons.
The group said that while its representatives were at one sites, which had already been looted, civilians and armed fighters arrived with pickup trucks to remove more weapons.
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