UN weapons inspector dies in crash

A UN weapons inspector was killed and another was injured in a car crash in Iraq today.

A car carrying the two inspectors crashed head-on into a truck on a highway south of Baghdad, according to a statement from Iraq’s National Monitoring Directorate, the liaison with the inspectors.

The inspectors – whose nationalities were not given – were returning to Baghdad after inspecting the al-Noamaniya tomato canning factory, 30 miles south of Baghdad, it said.

One inspector died an hour after being airlifted to a military hospital in Baghdad. The other was taken to a hospital in an ambulance and was in stable condition, the NMD said.

The NMD said the inspectors’ car was pushed off the road and landed on its side in a swamp.

NMD officials travelling in a convoy of four cars with the inspectors retrieved the inspectors and administered first aid, it said.

A spokesman for the inspectors in Baghdad could not immediately be reached.