Iraq, however, then circulated a report at the UN on October 7th, insisting that its capabilities to produce biological and chemical agents were destroyed during the 1991 Gulf war.

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U.S. officials predicted before the war that at least 100 metric tons of weapon-ready chemical and biological agents would be found.

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Iraq claims that all its biological weaponry, stocks of agents, and manufacturing equipment were destroyed immediately after the Gulf war, and the residues buried.

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It was to help the UK to assess the risk of an attack using biological agents by providing important information about their likely dispersion in the open air during the Cold War.

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