BAGHDAD, 14 April 2003 — American troops have discovered a vast underground bunker complex equipped with pressurized offices and bedrooms, gas masks and chemical protective gear, and enough sophisticated chemical and biological decontamination equipment to protect hundreds — perhaps thousands — of senior Iraqi leaders and commanders.
The complex, discovered Friday by troops of the 3rd Infantry Division, was inspected Saturday by a military chemical team from division headquarters. The team described the complex, located next to gardens on the sprawling Presidential Palace grounds, as a command and control center designed to protect the Iraqi elite from chemical or biological agents. “He was quite prepared to fight a chemical or biological war,’’ Maj. Keith Reed, the division’s deputy chemical officer, said of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. “This is a very, very interesting facility.’’
The complex, which stretches underground for several hundred feet in all directions, is located beneath a multistory, pale yellow stone building that looks similar to other grand structures on the two-mile-long palace grounds on the west bank of the Tigris River. Compartments within the bunkers are separated by three-inch-thick steel doors left open when Iraqis fled the complex, apparently in recent days or weeks.
“It’s a very well-built, top-of-the-line system — overpressurized, double-sealed, with full filtration,’’ said Lt. Col. David Velazquez, the division’s chemical officer. “I’ve seen other pressure systems, and this one is first-rate.’’
The chemical officers said the overpressurization sealed the complex off from contaminated outside air, while the ventilation system insured a supply of clean air.
Velazquez and Reed said they could not determine from a preliminary inspection whether the complex was intended to withstand a chemical or biological attack by Iran during Iraq’s war with its neighbor in the 1980s; a feared attack by the US-led coalition; or a release of chemical or biological agents by the Saddam regime against US soldiers or Iraqi civilians — or all three.
A Los Angeles Times reporter who toured the darkened bunkers two hours before the chemical team arrived found a decontamination center just below the entrance to the complex, which is reached through a narrow stairway off the building’s main lobby. A wide passageway led to a small reception room posted with decontamination instructions in Arabic and an arrow pointing to “Decontamination Showers.’’ The center is equipped with showers sealed off by steel doors. On one side are syringes containing nerve gas antidotes, eyewash, kits with decontamination swabs and chemicals, and sealed bins for decontaminated clothing. Beyond the showers are lockers that apparently had contained fresh clothing. Through another steel door lay a small medical facility, apparently designed for doctors to examine people emerging from the showers.
Beyond the medical facility is a series of hallways leading to bunkrooms, apparently for soldiers or security officers. Storage shelves in some bunkrooms contained German-made gas masks, gloves and other chemical and biological protective gear.
Farther down were carpeted private bedroom suites with bathrooms featuring marble floors. Other hallways contained offices, meeting rooms and two large conference rooms equipped with microphones, video conferencing equipment and maps with military grids.
“It’s basically a command and control center designed to keep chemical or biological agents out,’’ Reed said.
The chemical team inspected the complex for almost two hours, discovering an entrance to an upper central area of the building that was blocked by a submarine-type air-lock door that was sealed shut. A US Special Forces team arrived to secure the building. “There are at least one or two floors accessible only through that air lock,’’ Reed told the Special Forces team. “Everything is designed to support something inside. There is definitely something of great interest in those mid-level areas.’’
The chemical officers said a military team would blow open the doors later to allow for further inspections. If any chemical or biological agents are found, they said, the military’s 75th Exploitation Task Force will be alerted. The task force, now in southern Iraq, is searching for evidence of Iraq’s chemical, biological and nuclear programs.
The inspection Saturday was conducted with flashlights in the darkened complex, which is without electricity or water. Though the entrance and lobby of the building above the complex was badly damaged by US attacks, the underground bunkers were untouched.
