Iraqis assist first inspections

INTERNATIONAL arms monitors searched a military missile testing range and a possible nuclear site outside Baghdad yesterday, kicking off a round of inspections that could determine the future of the Middle East.

Inspectors did not immediately disclose their findings but appeared pleased with their hosts’ assistance on the first day.

“We hope the Iraqi response today represents the future pattern of co-operation,” said Jacques Baute, leader of the team of nuclear inspectors. “We were welcomed in a polite and professional manner and we were able to do the job. That’s good enough for us.”

The experts are to assess whether President Saddam Hussein is pursuing illegal chemical, biological or nuclear weapons programmes. President George Bush has threatened to disarm him by force if the inspections fail.

Yesterday began what is expected to be months of difficult, detailed inspections of hundreds of sites after a four-year break. In one of the two initial surprise inspections, six white UN vehicles pulled up in front of a military complex 25 miles west of Baghdad, trailed by scores of international journalists who waited outside.

The UN team was not interested in the industrial buildings in front but in the largely empty expanse out back, known as the al-Rafah testing station, empty except for a few skeletal steel structures. On the basis of satellite photos, US intelligence analysts have suggested a new square, steel-girder stand for holding and testing missile engines there might be used for missiles larger than allowed by the UN.

The inspectors spent five hours inside. Over the seven-foot walls around the complex, they could be seen criss-crossing the open testing area in blue UN baseball caps, clipboards in hand, packs on backs.

They spent considerable time in a small concrete building that appeared to be a control centre. They also checked files and photographed documents, the centre director, military engineer Ali Jassam Hussein, said later: “They didn’t find anything because we don’t have anything illegal.”

The inspectors in the other three UN vehicles went to al-Tahadi, a factory run by the Ministry of Industry, six miles east of Baghdad. Iraqi officials said it produces motors for cement factories, refineries and water pumping stations. About 10 inspectors spent three hours inside before heading back to headquarters. No one was allowed in or out during the inspection.

Haitham Maamoud, the factory’s director, said it had never been involved in Iraq’s nuclear programme. He said the inspectors, who arrived unannounced, toured maintenance workshops and asked questions.

The inspection went smoothly and factory officials answered all the questions put to them, he said, without providing any details.

The UN monitors have a mandate from the Security Council to test Baghdad’s contention that it has no arsenals of weapons of mass destruction, or programmes to build them.

Iraqi co-operation “is the only way to avoid a military conflict in the region,” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday.

Baghdad’s ambassador to the UN, Mohammed Al-Douri, said Iraq “is not afraid of the inspectors’ work because it has nothing to hide, but Iraq fears that some of the inspectors will misuse their authority and make trouble that the United States will use to strike Iraq.”

Also yesterday, Pentagon officials said a US-led attack on Iraq will defeat Saddam Hussein’s forces more quickly and with fewer troops than in the 1991 Gulf War. American military chiefs plan to test a new battle theory that relies on hi-tech precision bombing and a smaller, more rapidly moving infantry than a decade ago, when large columns of soldiers advanced in tight formations.

The assault would start with a short air attack on critical targets aimed at destroying Iraq’s ability to resist, officials told the Wall Street Journal.

Fast-moving ground troops should then be able to overcome Saddam’s army before it is able to regroup.