World News | US Destroys Last of Its Declared Chemical Weapons, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell Says

Richmond (US), Jul 7 (AP) Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell announced Friday that the US has destroyed the last of its declared chemical weapons stockpile, a milestone in the history of warfare dating back to World War I.

McConnell said in a statement that workers at Kentucky's Blue Grass Army Depot eliminated the last of thousands of rockets filled with GB nerve agent that are the last of the United States' declared chemical weapons and completed a decadeslong campaign to eliminate a stockpile that by the end of the Cold War totaled more than 30,000 tons.

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The US faced a September 30 deadline to eliminate its remaining chemical weapons under the international Chemical Weapons Convention, which took effect in 1997 and was joined by 193 countries.

The munitions destroyed in Kentucky are the last of 51,000 M55 rockets with GB nerve agent — a deadly toxin also known as sarin — that have been stored at the depot since the 1940s.

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By destroying the munitions, the US is officially underscoring that these types of weapons are no longer acceptable in the battlefield and sending a message to the handful of countries that haven't joined the agreement, military experts say.

Chemical weapons were first used in modern warfare in World War I, where they were estimated have killed at least 100,000. Despite their use being subsequently banned by the Geneva Convention, countries continued to stockpile the weapons until the treaty calling for their destruction.

In southern Colorado, workers at the Army Pueblo Chemical Depot on June 22 completed their mission of neutralizing an entire cache of about 2,600 tons of mustard blister agent.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)