Caches of nitric acid seized in Baghdad

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BAGHDAD - U.S. troops said yesterday that they had found two large caches of nitric acid a highly corrosive substance with chemical weapons potential in abandoned houses used by Sunni insurgents in western Baghdad.

Other chemically laced bombs used in terrorist attacks recently have been spiked with chlorine.

Acting on a tip from neighbors, members of the Stryker Brigade's Alpha Company found 31 barrels of nitric acid Saturday in the walled-off front yard of a house that had been raided less than two weeks earlier.

Members of the same company were clearing another abandoned house a few hundred yards away when they found an additional two 5-gallon containers of nitric acid.

They also discovered four 50-pound bags of an unknown powder, artillery casings filled with the powder, several buckets for mixing, zinc oxide and benzene.

Nitric acid "is one of the chemicals used to make homemade explosives," said Sgt. 1st Class Douglas Wallace, battalion medic for the 2nd battalion, 3rd infantry regiment of the 3-2 Stryker Brigade.

"It's an acid and causes chemical burns to the skin and burns the lungs and esophagus if it is inhaled," Sgt. Wallace told The Washington Times.

Capt. Jon Fursman of the Stryker Alpha Company said that eight men had been arrested at the first house and that neighbors had alerted U.S. forces to the chemicals.

"All were clearly labeled in English, with standard hazmat labels," said Capt. Fursman.

The finds came amid unremitting terrorist attacks to defeat a two-month-old U.S. effort to pacify Baghdad with thousands of additional U.S. troops.