The lab was found at the al-Kindi Rocket and Missile Research and Development Center in northern Iraq, said Army Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus.
"The expert I talked to this morning said that he had a reasonable degree of certainty that this is in fact a mobile biological agent production trailer," Petraeus said Tuesday in a video teleconference with Pentagon reporters.
Kurdish troops stopped a similar trailer loaded with suspicious equipment at a checkpoint in northern Iraq in April. The layout is nearly identical to the first trailer that was found and seems to have been made in the same facility as the other trailer, Petraeus said.
"We do not believe that the lab trailer that we found here was completed. Several welds were not finished, and shipping plugs were still in place. And in addition, a water pump, forward air compressor, canvas cover and some of the piping were looted," Petraeus said.
The trailers are the closest U.S. forces have come to a "smoking gun" in their search for finding so-called weapons of mass destruction -- one of the primary reasons cited for the war against Saddam Hussein.
While other suspected labs have been found, all so far have turned out to be "dual-use" -- that is, potentially explained away as facilities to make fertilizer or vaccines, rather than weapons.
Secretary of State Colin Powell told the United Nations in February that Iraq probably possessed 18 such trailers.
Petraeus could offer no firm explanation why no biological or chemical agents have been found so far in Iraq.
"I just don't know whether it was all destroyed years ago," Petraeus said. "Whether they were destroyed right before the war, whether they're still hidden ... I think the explanation is still out there to be found."
Petraeus denied reports that his soldiers had "seized" an Iraqi television station in Mosul, as the Wall Street Journal reported May 8. He said soldiers "secured" the compound that contains the TV station, because it had been looted. They have not entered the operations booth.
He said his forces have warned the station manager against airing inflammatory material that might incite people to violence, such as Saddam's first reported letter encouraging Iraqis to fight the Americans. Also, local political figures given to "rhetorical excess" had threatened employees of the station if they did not give them airtime, he said.
"We've been up there and talked to (the station manager), and I think that's really all that's going to be necessary in this case. We did at one time look at the possibility of having an officer and a translator in the station, but we have not done that. And we've certainly never seized the TV transmitter or given orders to that effect," Petraeus said.
Nevertheless, he would not hesitate to commandeer the station if he deems it necessary to security.
"Right now I don't think there's going to be any problem with the station. If there is, we will be happy to occupy it and to monitor what's being transmitted," he said. "Our job is to maintain a safe and secure environment for the people of Mosul. That's an obligation that we have, a legal obligation. We take that seriously, and we're certainly not going to let radios or TV stations broadcast anything that would again foster violence or actions against either our soldiers or the citizens of Mosul."
Petraeus said Mosul, after a spate of violence during and immediately after the war, has been brought under control.
"We did have several firefights our first week here," he said. "We have not had effective fire against our soldiers in at least the last week."
Petraeus said the border with Syria was opened Tuesday to trade. About 90 percent of Mosul has water and power, he said, and more than 400 separate weapons caches have been found throughout the province.
His troops will begin on Saturday to pay government salaries for the month of May, one-time payments drawn from a cache of $5 million. An Iraqi banking ministry official safeguarded funds during the war with which government employees have been paid for the month of April during the past four days.
Petraeus commands some 18,000 troops and 250 helicopters based in the northeastern province, Ninevah that includes Mosul. They fought through more than 1,200 kilometers of Iraq from Kuwait to get there, using some 3,500 rounds of artillery nearly 1,000 rockets and Hellfire missiles, 114 Army Tactical Missiles and over 40,000 rounds of Apache and Kiowa machine-gun ammunition.
Three of his soldiers died in combat and about 70 wounded.
Troops from the 101st control three airfields, one of which will be able to host the massive C-5 airlifter in a few weeks.
Petraeus said the Iraqi military quickly adapted its tactics to blunt the impact the Apache Longbow attack helicopter had on the battlefield. The helicopter is optimized to destroy large masses of enemy formations in nighttime raids. After one successful mission -- the first and last time a Republican Guard division mounted and organized defense- ? Iraqi forces dispersed their tanks and artillery.
"They flat weren't massed in the way that we want usually for Apache operations," he said.
Petraeus also changed tactics in response. The Apache was sent on daylight reconnaissance missions to find the elusive enemy. Using its onboard sensors and ability to link that information to other aircraft and missile systems, the Apache became the central link in an ongoing search-and-destroy campaign.
The switch from daylight to nighttime operations was also dictated by the dangerous night landings in the thick dust of southern Iraq, which obscured almost all visibility, he said.
"Night dust landings ... were very, very difficult, and that's despite soldiers who had flown in Afghanistan, spent quite a bit of time with environmental training in Kuwait, had no problems there, and so forth," he said.
Copyright 2003 by United Press International.
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