UN weapons experts leave for Iraq

With the world watching, a team of United Nations arms inspectors was leaving for Baghdad today to again take up the hunt for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, amid complaints by the Iraqi government that the mission could give America a pretext for war.

A UN rear base on Cyprus was the jump-off point for the first working contingent of 18 specialists – six from the UN nuclear agency and 12 from the commission charged with searching for other weapons of mass destruction.