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U-2 surveillance begins over IraqInspectors discuss aluminum tubes with Iraqi engineer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An American U-2 spy plane made its first flight Monday in support of U.N. weapons inspectors, U.S. and Iraqi officials said -- meeting a key U.N. demand in the search for possible weapons of mass destruction. Foreign Ministry officials in Baghdad said the aircraft was operating Monday over Iraq, which agreed last week to allow the surveillance flights. Officials at the Pentagon confirmed that a U-2 flight took place Monday. Iraq's reluctance to allow those flights was a main sticking point in the renewed inspections regimen that began in November. The announcement Monday came after weapons inspectors questioned a senior Iraqi engineer involved in the purchase of aluminum tubes that U.S. officials say were part of a secret effort to build nuclear weapons. A U.N. statement issued Monday evening said the engineer was "connected with Iraq's procurement history related to 81 mm aluminum tubes." The statement did not identify the person or elaborate on what role he or she played. Iraq has said the tubes were intended to build conventional artillery rockets, and the International Atomic Energy Agency says they are consistent with that use. But U.S. officials say the tubes were manufactured to higher tolerances than needed for rockets and suggested they were meant for centrifuges used to process uranium for nuclear weapons. U.N. spokesman Hiro Ueki said inspectors also visited numerous other sites around Baghdad on Monday, including factories where engines are made for missiles that the U.N. says violate resolutions. Missile experts went to six sites: • Khadimia and Samoud factories, which help produce liquid propellant-type missile engines • Ameen Factory in Fallujah, west of Baghdad • Mutassim Co., 56 miles (90 kilometers) south of Baghdad • Assima Co. in Taji, 7 miles (12 kilometers) north of Baghdad • Ibn Al-Haithem General Establishment in Taji, which makes air conditioners and generators for civilian use Nuclear experts went to four locations: • Samarra, 62 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad • Nidaa, in the Baghdad suburb of Zafkraniyah • Am Al Maa'rik, 31 miles (50 kilometers) south of Baghdad • Tho Al Fekar, 9 miles (15 kilometers) north of Baghdad Chemical weapons experts visited: • Muthanna, where U.N. inspectors say Iraq was destroying mustard gas under their supervision. The team took chemical samples for analysis • Zahif Al Kabeer, about 19 miles (30 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad Biological weapons experts went to Fuwayjah, about 32 miles (50 kilometers) southwest of Kirkuk, to inspect a seed-processing facility, Ueki said. A Mosul-based multidisciplinary team made a new trip to an ammunition-storage facility and inspected a military site that consisted of 100 storage bunkers and a number of temporary storage sites. The search was focused primarily on artillery and small-caliber munitions, Ueki said.
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