UN Inspectors Search 6 Iraqi Sites as Saddam Terms Them Spies

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, January 07, 2003

UN Inspectors Search 6 Iraqi Sites as Saddam Terms Them Spies

UN arms inspectors on Monday searched six Iraqi sites for prohibited weapons of mass destructionas Iraqi President Saddam Hussein accused them of carrying out espionage activities in the country.

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UN arms inspectors on Monday searched six Iraqi sites for prohibited weapons of mass destructionas Iraqi President Saddam Hussein accused them of carrying out espionage activities in the country.

A team of biological inspectors from the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) drove to the Ibn Seena Center, some 10 km northwest of Baghdad, the UN experts' spokesman Hiro Ueki said in a statement.

"The Center is a facility for the production of veterinary drugs," Ueki said.

An UNMOVIC team of missile inspectors went to an Iraqi army basefar south of Baghdad and started to tag the Al Fatah ground-to-ground solid propellant rockets.

"The remaining Al Fatah rockets, now in the possession of the Iraqi army, will be tagged in the course of this week," the UN spokesman said.

Some UNMOVIC chemical experts paid a returned visit to the Falluja III site, located about 100 km west of Baghdad.

The facility, which is part of the Al Tariq Company, is primarily a pesticide formulation plant and was previously inspected on Dec. 8-19, 2002.

An UNMOVIC multi disciplinary team inspected the maintenance section of the Al Fao Company in north Baghdad, which "is responsible for the repair of engines, pumps and compressors used by the water-treatment and other industries," Ueki said.

The multi disciplinary inspection team based in the northern city of Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, on Monday inspected the Free Trading Zone Commission (FTZC), which is affiliated with the Ministry of Finance.

Meanwhile, nuclear experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspected several locations at the Tuwaitha site, some 25 km southeast of Baghdad.

The facilities that were searched by the nuclear experts included the Nuclear Physics Academic Research Center, the Physics Research Materials and Electronics Studies Center, and the Laser and Plasma Research Center, Ueki said.

In a televised speech marking the Iraqi Army Day on Monday, Saddam accused the UN arms inspectors of engaging in "pure intelligence work" as they were searching Iraqi sites for alleged weapons of mass destruction.

"They started to take care of collecting lists of Iraqi scientists, ask workers questions related to other purposes and focus on military camps and unbanned military production and other things," the Iraqi president said.

"These things, or most of them, are pure intelligence work," Saddam said on the 82nd anniversary of the founding of the Iraqi armed forces.

While denying US allegation that it has weapons of mass destruction, Iraq has accepted the UN Security Council Resolution 1441 that provides for a tougher weapons inspection regime in the country.

Under the resolution, the weapons experts resumed their hunting for prohibited weapons of mass destruction in Iraq on Nov. 27 aftera four-year suspension.

The inspectors, who have so far searched more than 200 suspectedsites in Iraq, must give their first report to the UN Security Council about Iraq's weapons programs by a Jan. 27 deadline.

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