NEWS: Did the Sudanese Air Force use WMD's?

Sudanese villagers claim that the Sudan Air Force dropped chemical bombs on western Sudan in the Dharfur region this past May. One alleged attack was the dropping of 8 plastic bags filled with a powder which opened when they hit the ground, villagers and animals subsequently died and many became ill from inhaling the fumes. The other attack was a bomb which created a noxious smoke after hitting but a helping wind moved the cloud from the village limiting the effects according to this report.



The government denies any chemical attack, and a representative of Human Rights Watch said "We cannot verify or disprove at the moment any assertions of a chemical attack," also denying that they received samples of the powder for testing. While there are calls for an investigation, it is unsure if an investigation has started to prove or disprove these allegations.

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washingtontimes.com

[edit on 8/17/04 by JacKatMtn]

Thanks for the article. However can we be careful when using the abreviation WMD.

Although, even if this is a true account of what happend, it cannot be classed as a WMD.

Lets try not to blow things out of proportion. WMDs should be considered as a very extreme form of violence.

But in saying that, this kind of thing really should not be allowed to happen.

If the reports are true, then these would be WMD's. Chemical weapons are WMD's.

The biggest surprise here for me would be that Sudan has actually obtained chemical weapons and even has an air force of some kind.