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More U.N. inspectors fly to Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- More U.N. weapons inspectors are due in Baghdad as the United Nations continued to step up its searches for signs of weapons of mass destruction. Twenty inspectors are due to arrive in Baghdad from Cyprus on Sunday where they will add to the growing number of inspectors, estimated around 100. The arms monitors have said they want to visit some 200 suspected sites in Iraq, a heavy workload before they report to the U.N. Security Council on January 27. Meanwhile, Iraq's Foreign Minister Naji Sabri issued a complaint to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan about what Iraq deems violations of its airspace by coalition aircraft. Sabri reported some 1,141 violations by coalition aircraft between November 9 and December 6. Two no-fly zones, designed to protect Kurds in northern Iraq and Shiites in the southern part of the country from the Iraqi regime, have been a bone of contention between the United States, Britain and Iraq since they were established after the 1991 Gulf War -- without a specific U.N. resolution. Coalition aircraft Saturday hit Iraqi air defense communication facilities southeast of Baghdad, responding to what the U.S. military termed "hostile threats and acts" against aircraft patrolling the southern no-fly zone, according to the U.S. Central Command. Operation Southern Watch planes struck three facilities, the U.S. Central Command said, near Al Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Iraqi capital; Qal'at Sukkar, about 170 miles southeast of the city; and Al Amarah, about 165 miles east southeast of the city. Iraqi News Agency reported three civilian sites had been hit Saturday by coalition aircraft in the southern no-fly zone. U.N. inspectors have picked up their pace in recent days, with a dozen teams visiting a 14 sites Saturday, including a factory south of the Iraqi capital which belongs to Iraq's military industrial commission. One team also revisited a Baghdad health center where several rooms in the facility had been inaccessible on Friday. The U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission is looking for biological and chemical programs, while the International Atomic Energy Agency is checking for nuclear programs. As the inspectors continue their work, translators and analysts at the two bodies are poring over thousands of pages contained in Iraq's declaration weapons programs and dual-use activities. U.S. officials believe Iraq's 11,000-page declaration of its weapons of mass destruction program omits many details about its program and is "far, far, far short" from being a complete report, according one senior U.S. official. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said a redacted report would be submitted Tuesday to the U.N. Security Council, and he and weapons inspections head Hans Blix would brief the council Thursday. ElBaradei said analysts had seen "nothing new really" in the documentation relating to nuclear activities. "They have said they do not have any nuclear weapons-related activities, which means we have to do a lot of work," he told CNN's Christiane Amanpour. -- CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson contributed to this report
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