Iraq destroys more missiles

United Nations weapons inspectors stepped up the destruction of banned missiles today, returning to a military compound to supervise the disposal of six Al Samoud 2 rockets, an Iraqi official said.

The destruction process started yesterday, when bulldozers crushed four Al Samoud 2 missiles, meeting a UN demand in an attempt to prevent a devastating US-led attack.

Washington dismissed the move and continued to push for war.

An Iraqi information ministry official, Odai al-Taie, said the “destruction of six missiles started at 9am (6am Irish time) at al-Taji,” the same site north of Baghdad where yesterday’s destruction was carried out.

A second casting chamber used in the manufacture of the missiles was also to be destroyed today, he said.

UN spokesman Hiro Ueki said inspectors also returned today to al-Aziziya, an abandoned helicopter airfield 60 miles south-east of Baghdad, where Iraq says it destroyed R-400 bombs filled with biological weapons in 1991, and took samples of some of the bombs that were found intact.

Another team of inspectors headed to al-Muthana, 90 miles north of Baghdad, where they had been destroying 155mm artillery shells filled with mustard gas, Ueki said.

Top inspector Demetrius Perricos said yesterday that “the mustard has been completely destroyed”.

On another key UN demand, a biological expert submitted to an interview yesterday.

But two others refused to do so without a witness or a tape recorder, while fourth could not be located.

Iraq said its co-operation was an attempt to avert a US-led war against it.

Iraq’s UN ambassador, Mohammed al-Douri, said in New York: “War is the worst thing, and we are trying to do whatever we can to avoid war so we are doing our utmost to co-operate.”.

But US President George Bush’s preparations for a military showdown with Iraq suffered a severe setback Saturday when Turkey’s parliament failed to approve the deployment of 62,000 US combat troops.

The US wants to use Turkey to open a northern front against Iraq in the event of war.

Even Arab nations failed to find unity over the Iraq crisis, with a summit descending into an exchange of insults between Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and Libya’s Colonel Gadaffi.

The United Arab Emirates called on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to step down, but the leaders eventually agreed on a declaration rejecting any aggression on Iraq.

The summit ended with a declaration expressing “complete rejection of any aggression on Iraq” and calling for inspections to be given more time.

It also urged Baghdad to abide by UN demands that it should surrender weapons of mass destruction and missiles it could use to deliver them.

The destruction of the Al Samoud 2 missiles was ordered by chief inspector Hans Blix, who said Iraq had to begin the destruction by yesterday.

In a sprawling military complex on a desert plain just north of Baghdad, UN weapons inspectors watched Saturday as Iraqi workers tried to crush an Al Samoud 2 missile, then had to wait for bigger bulldozers to finish the job.

“They built it very strong,” joked Perricos, who is Blix’s deputy.

Perricos, who travelled to Baghdad to work out the last-minute details on destruction, held technical discussions with the Iraqis before the operation began.

He would hold more talks today about stores of anthrax and VX that Iraq says it destroyed, he said.

Perricos said he had agreed on a timetable of “a few days or a very short few weeks” to destroy Iraq’s 100-plus missiles – as well as components, software and machines used to make them.

Perricos said the pace would soon accelerate. The missiles’ warheads were removed and will be destroyed at a safer site.

European leaders praised the move, but White House spokeswoman Merci Viana said Iraq’s decision was “part of its game of deception”.

Spokesman Ari Fleischer said that to avoid a war, Iraq needed not only to disarm, but also to change its leadership.

Perricos said the inspectors thought a coming Security Council meeting might pressure the scientists to grant interviews, “and luckily enough we saw some changes of attitude”.

But while the missile destruction and the interviews met key UN demands, Perricos would not say how the actions might affect the badly divided Security Council, which is considering a US-led proposal that would authorise war.

“Taking the Samoud 2 system out of the way is definitely a concrete action on disarmament,”

Perricos said, but cautioned: “I cannot tell you if this development pushes the war away.”