CNN December 30, 2002
U.N. inspectors widen Iraq tours
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq U.N. weapons inspectors descended on a munitions factory and a water treatment facility Monday.
The visits were among those being conducted by at least five separate teams of inspectors.
One team revisited the Al Samood factory, about 25 miles (40 km) west of Baghdad, which manufactures major components for the Al Samood missile, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The IAEA said the factory belongs to the Al Karama State Company and began its operations in 1999.
A separate team of biologists headed to Baghdad's central health laboratory as well as the high commission of land protection in the Baghdad district of Abu Ghareeb.
U.N. nuclear experts travelled to another suspected missile factory -- Thaet Al-Sawari -- in Taji, about 19 miles (30 km) north of Baghdad.
Taji was the primary location for Iraq's indigenous long-range missile program, according to GlobalSecurity.org.
Chemical weapons inspectors toured the Al Nidda facility at Zaafarniyah, a suburb south of Baghdad.
According to the Federation of American Scientists, the Al Nidda facility specialises in nuclear research and production.
A joint U.N. team inspected a water treatment in Al Qa'qa, along the Euphrates River about 12 miles (20 km) south of Baghdad.
On Saturday, a team of missile experts visited Al Qa'qa, a site listed by British intelligence officials as a chemical complex that may be producing phosgene, which can be used as a chemical agent.
The facility was severely damaged in the 1991 Gulf War but has been repaired and is operational, according to a British white paper released on Iraq in September.
Another communications team toured the town of Al Mumthiryah near the Iraq-Iran border as part of the search for evidence that Iraq has an active nuclear or chemical weapons programme.
The Bush administration is anxious to see the results of the inspections, Secretary of State Colin Powell told American television Sunday.
He said that "we are positioning our military forces for whatever might be required," but added that in the event of a war, Iraq's "oil fields are the property of the Iraqi people."
"If a coalition force goes into those oil fields, we want to protect those fields and make sure they're used to benefit the people of Iraq and not destroyed or damaged by the failing regime on the way out the door," Powell added.
Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune
