AL-DAWRAH, Iraq - International arms inspectors revisited one of the "hot zones" of Iraq's biological weapons program yesterday, peering into holding tanks and canvassing the grounds to check for the resumption of military research.
The al-Dawrah plant, which Iraq says is used for making animal vaccines, produced deadly botulinum toxins in the 1980s, earlier United Nations inspections determined. British intelligence officials say they suspect anthrax was also developed at the site.
The U.N. experts had no immediate comment on what they found on the second day of renewed inspections for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Iraq says it no longer has programs for weapons of mass destruction.
The outcome of these inspections could help determine whether the U.N. Security Council authorizes military action to disarm Iraq. The Bush administration has said it would attack Iraq with or without U.N. authority.
At least six biological inspectors, whose destination was confidential, traveled to this town on Baghdad's southern outskirts in a careening convoy of U.N. vehicles pursued by dozens of international journalists. The media could observe some of the visit from behind the fence of the Foot and Mouth Disease Vaccine Production Laboratory.
"We're growing cucumber and eggplant," workers in a garden corner of the compound told reporters.
In the 1990s, under pressure from U.N. inspectors, Iraq acknowledged that it had produced tons of biological agents for weapons at the site, especially botulinum, which kills by paralysis and suffocation.
After arriving at the factory, the inspectors gained immediate entry - the Iraqis say many likely sites have been alerted - and quickly began walking the grounds. They knew where to go because the site had been surveyed in the 1990s by U.N. inspectors who destroyed tons of chemical and biological weapons and dismantled Iraq's nuclear weapons program.
The steel doors of small outbuildings were opened during yesterday's inspection. The clipboard-bearing specialists appeared to check off items as they looked at tanks, pipes and other fixtures.
One expert climbed to the top of a 20-foot-tall tank, peered in over the top, and nodded to a colleague.
After four hours, the U.N. team vanished, possibly to confer over files and internal laboratories.
"It is very good cooperation," former factory director Montasser Omar Abdel Aziz told reporters, who were allowed onto the factory grounds after the inspection. He said inspectors swabbed many samples from an air-filtration system, tanks and other fixtures.
Asked why the U.N. monitors might suspect illicit activities at al-Dawrah, he replied in English: "You can see, enter inside and see. They are all destroyed," meaning the equipment. "Nobody can do anything here."
The darkened rooms of the compound's main building were strewn with mangled equipment, piles of paperwork, boxes of dusty books and other debris, clearly remnants of an abandoned scientific enterprise.
A recent U.S. intelligence report said Iraq announced that it would renovate the al-Dawrah plant for animal vaccines. But Aziz said there were no such plans.
Also yesterday, another team of U.N. inspectors went to the al-Nasr complex, 30 miles north of Baghdad. The site is owned by the Ministry of Industry.
In the past, the al-Nasr site produced "special munitions," particularly aerial bombs believed to hold chemical agents. The complex also extended the range of Scud missiles that were imported from the former Soviet Union.
The inspections resumed Wednesday with surprise visits to a missile-engine site, to an adjacent graphite factory whose products might be used in missile development, and to a motor factory that apparently could be used for nuclear purposes.
At the missile site, the inspectors wanted to see new equipment that some analysts believe could be used to test engines that would propel missiles beyond the U.N.-permitted range of 90 miles.
Earlier U.N. inspections of Iraq were suspended in 1998 amid disputes over access to Iraqi sites and Iraqi complaints that the United States was using the searches for espionage.
In the new round, the inspectors are to report to the Security Council by late January on what they have found and whether Iraq has cooperated.
If the inspectors certify that Iraq has cooperated fully with their disarmament work, U.N. resolutions call for the lifting of economic sanctions imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in 1990. If the Iraqis fail to cooperate, the council may debate military action.
Meanwhile, U.S. and British warplanes attacked a "civilian and services" installation in northern Iraq yesterday, killing one civilian, the official Iraqi News Agency said.
The attack in Nineveh province, 250 miles north of Baghdad, occurred at 11:05 a.m. local time, an unnamed military spokesman told the news agency.
Iraqi air defense units fired at the attacking planes, forcing them to return to their bases in Turkey, the agency said.
American and British warplanes taking off from bases in Kuwait conducted 55 sorties over southern Iraq, it said. No comment was immediately available from the U.S. military.
The al-Dawrah plant, which Iraq says is used for making animal vaccines, produced deadly botulinum toxins in the 1980s, earlier United Nations inspections determined. British intelligence officials say they suspect anthrax was also developed at the site.
The U.N. experts had no immediate comment on what they found on the second day of renewed inspections for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Iraq says it no longer has programs for weapons of mass destruction.
The outcome of these inspections could help determine whether the U.N. Security Council authorizes military action to disarm Iraq. The Bush administration has said it would attack Iraq with or without U.N. authority.
At least six biological inspectors, whose destination was confidential, traveled to this town on Baghdad's southern outskirts in a careening convoy of U.N. vehicles pursued by dozens of international journalists. The media could observe some of the visit from behind the fence of the Foot and Mouth Disease Vaccine Production Laboratory.
"We're growing cucumber and eggplant," workers in a garden corner of the compound told reporters.
In the 1990s, under pressure from U.N. inspectors, Iraq acknowledged that it had produced tons of biological agents for weapons at the site, especially botulinum, which kills by paralysis and suffocation.
After arriving at the factory, the inspectors gained immediate entry - the Iraqis say many likely sites have been alerted - and quickly began walking the grounds. They knew where to go because the site had been surveyed in the 1990s by U.N. inspectors who destroyed tons of chemical and biological weapons and dismantled Iraq's nuclear weapons program.
The steel doors of small outbuildings were opened during yesterday's inspection. The clipboard-bearing specialists appeared to check off items as they looked at tanks, pipes and other fixtures.
One expert climbed to the top of a 20-foot-tall tank, peered in over the top, and nodded to a colleague.
After four hours, the U.N. team vanished, possibly to confer over files and internal laboratories.
"It is very good cooperation," former factory director Montasser Omar Abdel Aziz told reporters, who were allowed onto the factory grounds after the inspection. He said inspectors swabbed many samples from an air-filtration system, tanks and other fixtures.
Asked why the U.N. monitors might suspect illicit activities at al-Dawrah, he replied in English: "You can see, enter inside and see. They are all destroyed," meaning the equipment. "Nobody can do anything here."
The darkened rooms of the compound's main building were strewn with mangled equipment, piles of paperwork, boxes of dusty books and other debris, clearly remnants of an abandoned scientific enterprise.
A recent U.S. intelligence report said Iraq announced that it would renovate the al-Dawrah plant for animal vaccines. But Aziz said there were no such plans.
Also yesterday, another team of U.N. inspectors went to the al-Nasr complex, 30 miles north of Baghdad. The site is owned by the Ministry of Industry.
In the past, the al-Nasr site produced "special munitions," particularly aerial bombs believed to hold chemical agents. The complex also extended the range of Scud missiles that were imported from the former Soviet Union.
The inspections resumed Wednesday with surprise visits to a missile-engine site, to an adjacent graphite factory whose products might be used in missile development, and to a motor factory that apparently could be used for nuclear purposes.
At the missile site, the inspectors wanted to see new equipment that some analysts believe could be used to test engines that would propel missiles beyond the U.N.-permitted range of 90 miles.
Earlier U.N. inspections of Iraq were suspended in 1998 amid disputes over access to Iraqi sites and Iraqi complaints that the United States was using the searches for espionage.
In the new round, the inspectors are to report to the Security Council by late January on what they have found and whether Iraq has cooperated.
If the inspectors certify that Iraq has cooperated fully with their disarmament work, U.N. resolutions call for the lifting of economic sanctions imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in 1990. If the Iraqis fail to cooperate, the council may debate military action.
Meanwhile, U.S. and British warplanes attacked a "civilian and services" installation in northern Iraq yesterday, killing one civilian, the official Iraqi News Agency said.
The attack in Nineveh province, 250 miles north of Baghdad, occurred at 11:05 a.m. local time, an unnamed military spokesman told the news agency.
Iraqi air defense units fired at the attacking planes, forcing them to return to their bases in Turkey, the agency said.
American and British warplanes taking off from bases in Kuwait conducted 55 sorties over southern Iraq, it said. No comment was immediately available from the U.S. military.