Sarin Confirmed, But Shells Seem Tough to Trigger

A 155 mm artillery shell rigged as an improvised explosive device (IED) contained between 3 liters and 4 liters of the nerve gas agent sarin. U.S. officials confirmed the presence of sarin and said the shell was a binary chemical artillery round remaining from before the 1991 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The structure of the shell — requiring the manual mixing of chemicals — could preclude its effective use by Iraqi militants and might account for the calm U.S. response to the shell's discovery.