Weapons inspectors to search 1,000 sites

UN weapons inspectors returning to Iraq plan to search up to 1,000 sites where they suspect chemical, biological and nuclear arms have been produced.

Evidence collected from British and US intelligence agencies and defectors from Saddam Hussein’s regime has led to development of an extensive list of areas in need of investigation.

There are about 100 “priority sites“, including a chlorine production plant outside Baghdad that once helped produce nerve gas, and an upgraded missile launch facility in Al-Rafah.

Inspectors are also expected to visit at least one of eight presidential compounds to test whether Saddam is willing to provide full compliance, UN officials told the Washington Post.

Mohamed El Baradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said there would be a mixture of visits to facilities that had been searched in the past and a few “no notice” inspections of previously unseen sites.

“We would not want to work in an expected fashion,” he told the Post.

“We will have to do some surprise visits to facilities that we might not be expected to visit.”

The first inspectors are to arrive early next week, with a full team of up to 100 to be working in Iraq by the end of the year.

Reports published last month by the UK’s Joint Intelligence Committee and the CIA claimed that since weapons inspectors left Iraq in 1998, the country has rebuilt at least 12 banned weapons facilities destroyed in Anglo-American bombing campaigns.

The restored facilities were said to include the Al Mamoun Solid Rocket Motor Production Plant, where Iraq previously produced motor missiles capable of travelling over 600 miles.

Technological advances in the past four years will help UN officials in Iraq complete what is expected to be one the most intrusive weapons inspection operations in modern history. Powerful spy satellites can now uncover details of factories, buildings and arsenals, while new portable germ detectors can quickly check installations for anthrax, plague and other diseases. Military analysts said radar systems exist that can scan for underground bunkers.