Libya Reported Building New Poison Factory

The Libyan government is building an underground chemical weapons plant, possibly with West German help, less than two months after a fire reportedly destroyed a similar facility at ground level, a West German magazine said Friday.

The weekly illustrated magazine Bunte, in a brief release discussing the story in its upcoming edition, said workers are building the plant at Sabha, 400 miles south of the Libyan capital of Tripoli.

“The new poison gas factory is an underground installation,” the magazine said.

The magazine attributed its report to West German intelligence sources. It said the plant is being built “possibly with the help of West German firms” but gave no details of suspected West German involvement.

The report comes less than two months after a fire was reported in a plant at Rabta that the United States and other Western nations suspected of manufacturing chemical weapons. The reports were not confirmed and some intelligence sources expressed doubt that there was a fire at all. The sources indicated that the report may have been a hoax to avert possible air attacks on the plant.

The head of the West German Tukay Construction Co. confirmed Thursday that two of his employees were detained in Libya, perhaps in connection with Libyan allegations that West German agents were responsible for the fire at Rabta.

Guenther Tukay, the head of the firm, said none of his employees were involved with the Rabta plant. He said his firm is a subcontractor for large West German firms in Libya.