Iraq destroyed weapons days before start of invasion, claims scientist

AN Iraqi scientist told a US military team that Iraq had destroyed chemical weapons and biological warfare equipment mere days before the war began, The New York Times reported yesterday.

Quoting members of the American team, the newspaper said the scientist also claimed that Iraq had sent unconventional weapons and technology to Syria from the mid-1990s onwards, and that Iraq had more recently begun to cooperate with al-Qaida.

The scientist, who said he had worked in Iraq’s chemical weapons program for more than a decade, led the US team to a supply of materials used in the production of illegal weapons, which he said he had buried, the newspaper reported from Iraq.