Where are the gas artillery rounds?

[Akmatov]

There is not any worldwide use of gas since WW1,except in Iraq on the Kurds.

Just a quick Google search turns up:

* 1963-67 Egypt used phosgene and mustard against Yemen
* 1975-83 Soviet-backed forces in Laos and Cambodia used Yellow Rain.
* 1979-84 Soviets used chemical weapons in Afghanistan, to include phosgene, Yellow Rain, older nerve gases and Flash, a newer nerve gas.
* 1984-?? Iraq used tabun against Iran
* 13 Feb 2012 - A Syrian defector from the Assad regime stated that Assad's forces were using nerve gas in its fight with rebels.


While trolling around the web I found this gem of Russian chemical science:

Novichok - Recently developed (1987 I think) choline sterase inhibitor (USSR). May affect human genes and thus damage could be genetically transmitted to offspring.
Skin contact and/or inhalation
Very rapid
Novichok 5 estimated to exceed effectiveness of VX by 5 to 8 times
Novichok 7 estimated to exceed effectiveness of soman by 10 times.

By 1987 Soviet scientists created a new binary nerve gas they called Novichok (pronounced no-vee-shok). Novichok (which means newcomer) has been
described as "a new toxic agent ... an injury with it is practically incurable ... those who were once affected with this toxic agent have remained disabled for the rest of their lives . Novichok agents are made of benign industrial and agricultural chemicals and can be made quickly in quantity. There is far less need to produce and stockpile vast quantities of agent or controlled precursors in advance.

destroyed by treaty agreements

Do bear in mind that the Sverdlovsk Incident (where workers failed to replace an exit vent filter in an anthrax munitions plant, resulting in anthrax spores being vented into the city of Sverdlovsk) occurred several years after the Soviet Union signed a treaty forbidding the production of biological weapons.

DIT: Turned up a reference to weaponized chemical agents and the smallest listed was "122-mm non-rocket artillery shells (2.9 kg),"; so I guess the Taliban will just have to rely on more conventional killing.