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Tracking Inspections in Iraq

RFE/L

28 FEBRUARY 2003

       A team of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors performed a car-borne radiation survey in the area of Al-Habibiyah, according to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry. The survey included various factories and departments belonging to the Oil Ministry and the Ministry of Industry and Minerals, the Foreign Ministry stated. The UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) confirmed the inspection.
      A team of missile inspectors went to the Al-Harith State Company to continue tagging Volga missiles, the Foreign Ministry reported. UNMOVIC stated that inspectors went to the Missile Maintenance Workshop at Al-Harith, adding that the purpose of the inspection was to "apply tags to the missiles, which had undergone maintenance, and to remove tags from the missiles scheduled for maintenance."
      An UNMOVIC biological team returned to the Al-Aziziyah Airfield and Firing Range where it counted excavated shells and weighed shell fragments. Some shells were also labeled, the Foreign Ministry stated. UNMOVIC confirmed that inspectors observed, "further digging" of R-400 aerial bombs and bomb fragments "that Iraq claims were filled with biological agents," and that "additional fragments of R-400 bombs were identified."
      Another biological team went to the Center for Purifying Seeds, which belongs to the Atomic Energy Organization. The team toured warehouses and "nearby rubble" and measured the dimensions of the warehouses, according to the Foreign Ministry.
      The same team also went to the Mabayn Al-Nahrayn State Company for the Production and Improvement of Seeds (Al-Nahrawan) where inspectors searched a store of purified wheat, the Foreign Ministry stated.
      UNMOVIC stated that inspectors visited the Mesopotamia State Company for Seeds at Jarf Al-Naddaf.
      The biological inspection team also went to a farm located behind the warehouses and took photographs, the Foreign Ministry noted. UNMOVIC did not mention this in its inspection report.
      The Foreign Ministry also reported that a U-2 reconnaissance plane spent six hours over Iraq on 28 February. UNMOVIC did not refer to surveillance flights in its statement.

Copyright (c) 2003. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org