UN experts search homes
2003-01-16 14:45
Baghdad - United Nations inspectors widened the scope of their searches for forbidden weapons in Iraq Thursday with visits to the homes of at least two Iraqi scientists.
Sources said the inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) paid a surprise visit to the home of Saleh Hussein, director general of the Razi facility, which belongs to Iraq's military industrialisation authority.
It was not immediately clear whether the scientist was at his villa in the Baghdad suburb of Ghazaliya or why the IAEA nuclear experts where interested in the villa.
Sources claimed that the owner of the other house visited was actually at home and had initially tried to prevent UN officials from entering.
He reportedly allowed them in later, but insisted on speaking to them only through an interpreter.
Inspectors from the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commssion (UNmovic), including chemical experts, were said to have searched the facilities of the Iranian Mujahideen al-Khalq group.
Witnesses said the UNmovic chemical experts conducted searches of the group's radio station and a nearby training camp, and also carried out an aerial inspection of the facilities.
The visits to the private homes came as UNmovic and IAEA teams stepped-up their searches for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
On Wednesday, inspectors searched Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's Republican Palace in central Baghdad, a complex that also houses the offices of the elite republican guards.
They were said to have also visited private farms on the edge of Baghdad, drawing angry protests from their owners who viewed the visit as a violation of their privacy. - Sapa-DPA
- SAPA