U.S. Wary As Iraq Destroys More Missiles

02/03/2003| IslamWeb

U.N. weapons inspectors returned to a military compound Sunday to supervise the disposal of more outlawed Al Samoud 2 rockets, an Iraqi official said. The destruction of the missiles started Saturday, when bulldozers crushed four Al Samoud 2 missiles, meeting a U.N. demand in an attempt to prevent a U.S.-led attack. Washington, however, dismissed the move and continued to push for war.

An Iraqi information ministry official, Odai al-Taie, said the "destruction of six missiles started at 9:00 at al-Taji," the same site north of Baghdad where Saturday's destruction was carried out. He added that a second casting chamber used in the manufacture of the missiles was also to be destroyed Sunday.

Inspectors also returned Sunday to al-Aziziya, an abandoned helicopter airfield 60 miles southeast of Baghdad where Iraq says it destroyed R-400 bombs filled with biological weapons in 1991 and took samples of some of the bombs that were found intact, U.N. spokesman Hiro Ueki said.

Another team of inspectors headed to al-Muthana, 90 miles north of Baghdad, where they had been destroying 155mm artillery shells filled with mustard gas, Ueki said. Top inspector Demetrius Perricos said Saturday that "the mustard has been completely destroyed."

A biological expert submitted to an interview Saturday, meeting another key U.N. demand. Two others, however, refused to do so without a witness or a tape recorder, while fourth could not be located.

Iraq said its cooperation is an attempt to avert a U.S.-led war against it.

"War is the worst thing, and we are trying to do whatever we can to avoid war so we are doing our utmost to cooperate,"

Iraq's U.N. ambassador, Mohammed al-Douri, said in New York.

President Bush's preparations for a military showdown with Iraq suffered a setback Saturday when Turkey's parliament failed to approve the deployment of 62,000 U.S. combat troops.

The United States wants to use Turkey to open a northern front against Iraq in the event of war.

Even Arab nations failed to find unity over the Iraq crisis, with a summit in Egypt descending into an exchange of insults between Saudi Arabia's crown prince and Libya's Moammar Gadhafi. The United Arab Emirates called on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein  to step down, but the leaders eventually agreed on a declaration rejecting any aggression against Iraq.

The destruction of the Al Samoud 2 missiles had been ordered by chief inspector Hans Blix, who said Iraq had to begin the destruction by Saturday. Blix said the missiles fly farther than a 93-mile limit set by the United Nations .

In a sprawling military complex on a desert plain just north of Baghdad, U.N. weapons inspectors watched Saturday as Iraqi workers tried to crush an Al Samoud 2 missile, then had to wait for bigger bulldozers to finish the job.

"They built it very strong," joked Perricos, who is Blix's deputy.

Perricos said he would hold more talks Sunday morning about stores of anthrax and VX that Iraq says it destroyed.

Perricos said he had agreed on a timetable of "a few days or a very short few weeks" to destroy Iraq's 100-plus missiles - as well as components, software and machines used to make them.

Perricos said the pace would soon accelerate. The missiles' warheads were removed and will be destroyed at a safer site.

European leaders praised the move, but White House spokeswoman Merci Viana said Iraq's decision was "part of its game of deception." Spokesman Ari Fleischer  said that to avoid a war, Iraq needed not only to disarm, but also to change its leadership.

Perricos said the inspectors thought an upcoming Security Council meeting might pressure the scientists to grant interviews, "and luckily enough we saw some changes of attitude."

But while the missile destruction and the interviews met key U.N. demands, Perricos would not say how the actions might affect the divided council, which is considering a U.S.-led proposal that would authorize war.

"Taking the Samoud 2 system out of the way is definitely a concrete action on disarmament," Perricos said, but cautioned: "I cannot tell you if this development pushes the war away."

PHOTO CAPTION

Iraqi soldiers stand guard outside al-Taji base as UN inspectors supervise the disposal of Al-Samoud 2 missiles, 40 km (25 miles) north of Baghdad on Sunday, March 2, 2003. U.N. weapons inspectors returned to the military compound Sunday to supervise the disposal of more outlawed Al Samoud 2 rockets, an Iraqi official said. (AP Photo/Jassim Mohamme