- Traces of deadly nerve agents and mustard gas have been
found in three areas of an American base in Uzbekistan.
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- All troops have been moved away from the sites at the
Karshi Khanabad base, but no symptoms of exposure to the nerve agents have
been reported.
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- Officials say the traces may have come from chemical
weapons believed to have been stored there when it was a Soviet base.
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- Hundreds of US military personnel are currently stationed
at the base.
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- A team of experts conducting a routine inspection detected
three contaminated sites
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- * in a bunker at the edge of the base * in a hangar
where a headquarters had been set up * in an unstaffed maintenance facility
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- A health inspection late last year found nothing, but
this week when inspectors returned Uzbek officials told them that chemical
weapons had once been stored there, the Associated Press news agency reported.
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- Military officials said that there was no evidence of
the contamination occurring recently.
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- One theory is that warm weather could be to blame as
heat causes contaminated substances spilled onto the ground to give off
new vapours.
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- It was also possible that chemical weapons were buried
under the site and were now leaking, a military official said.
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- Further tests are currently being conducted to determine
the origin of the traces and how much there is.
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- Bases in Afghanistan are also being tested for possible
biological or chemical contamination.
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- Karshi Khanabad was one of the main bases used by US
troops during the war in Afghanistan, with up to 5,000 troops based there
at one point.
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- http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_2034000/2034163.stm
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