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U.N. inspects new Iraqi military factory
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- With a new group of inspectors at work in Iraq, bringing the total to 70, the U.N. inspection teams visited six sites Wednesday -- including a military factory built in 1999. The Al Fatah factory was listed in Iraq's declaration to weapons inspectors October 1 and in its massive declaration delivered to inspectors over the weekend. The factory is in the sprawling Al Karama facility on the outskirts of Baghdad. Al Karama was searched during previous U.N. inspections, which ended in 1998. Al Fatah was built on the site of a factory bombed during the Persian Gulf War. Inspectors and the site director told CNN that Al Karama is entirely a military site, making components for missiles, tanks, and other military equipment. Under U.N. rules, Iraq is allowed to have short-range missiles. In other searches during the day, inspectors continued their work at the al-Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center on the south side of Baghdad and at the Akashat uranium mine, about 420 kilometers (260 miles) west of Baghdad, near the Syrian border. Several tons of uranium have been under seal at al-Tuwaitha since the previous round of inspections ended in 1998. The complex includes more than 100 buildings. U.N. teams have visited the site three times since inspections resumed last month, carrying out a detailed inventory. Former weapons inspector David Albright told CNN Wednesday that if inspectors find anything is missing or has been tampered with at uranium sites, "suspicions increase that Iraq was going to try to use it in a nuclear weapons program." Teams also visited two sites in Tarmiyah 15 miles north of Baghdad -- the Ibn Sina research complex and al-Razi, previously associated with the biowarfare research. The Ibn Sina chemical site was mentioned in the dossier on Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction published by the UK government earlier this year. It is a dual-use facility involved in the production of industrial chemicals. Meanwhile, another U.N. team was at Fallujah, close to Baghdad, to inspect a site involved in the production of artillery parts. Twenty-five more U.N. weapons inspectors arrived in the Iraqi capital Tuesday, bolstering the international body's efforts to conduct more wide-ranging searches for evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Hiro Ueki, spokesman for the inspectors, said there will be more than 80 there by the end of the year. The latest arrivals were scheduled to join the inspection teams after Iraq submitted its declaration on weapons of mass destruction Saturday. Inspectors reported continued cooperation from Iraqi officials. So far, the United Nations has not announced finding any evidence of ongoing programs for chemical or biological weapons, high-powered missiles, or efforts to develop nuclear weapons capability. Iraqi officials said the document proves their country has no weapons of mass destruction -- an assertion disputed by Washington and London. On Tuesday teams of inspectors searched the Ibn al Haithem industrial engineering complex, which makes air conditioners and generators for civilian use, the Amariya Institute, an animal vaccine facility in the Baghdad district of abu Ghraib, and the Saddam Center for Biotechnology. The Ibn al Haithem plant contains computer-controlled machine tools capable of producing the fine tolerances required by some military applications. In the 1990s, Richard Butler, who was then chief U.N. weapons inspector, said he did not believe Iraq had provided complete information on activities at Ibn al Haithem. The inspectors were looking into possible dual-use activities that Iraq insists serve purely civilian purposes but that the United States believes may secretly be used for developing prohibited weapons. CNN correspondents Nic Robertson and Rym Brahimi contributed to this report.
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