US Army burns off 90 percent of largest stockpile of chemical weapons in Utah

Washington, Jan 19(ANI): The U.S. Army has destroyed about 90 percent of its chemical weapons in Utah, a region housing the country's largest stockpile of weapons.

The US army's Deseret Chemical Depot burnt its weapons in a 1,500-degree furnace.

The depot expects to fully destroy weapons after it incinerates bulk supplies of Lewisite, a powerful skin, eye and lung irritant.

"It gives me great joy and satisfaction to be done," Fox News quoted Army project manager Ted Ryba, as saying.

The move comes as part of an international treaty measure to rid the world of chemical weapons.

The U.S. has admitted that it will take as long as 2021 to completely destroy the remaining 10 percent of its chemical weapons at depots in Pueblo, Colo., and Richmond, Ky.

According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Russia and Libya could also miss the deadline to get rid of their weapons.

The US army had earlier destroyed chemical weapons at depots in Anniston, Ala.; Pine Bluff, Ark.; Newport, Ind.; Aberdeen. Md.; Umatilla, Ore.; and a Pacific atoll where the work started in 1986, according to the Chemical Materials Agency.

The chemical weapons which are left to be disposed include a stockpile of mustard agent in Pueblo., Colo., and a mixed inventory of mustard and nerve agents at Kentucky's Blue Grass Army Depot.

Chemical weapons were introduced into warfare during World War I, killing 90,000 troops on battlefields, according to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. (ANI)