| Suspicious chemicals undergo more tests
BAI'JI, Iraq (CNN) -- Further tests are being carried out on suspected chemical weapons found by U.S. troops in northern Iraq, an Army officer told CNN on Sunday.
Preliminary tests, which can be unreliable, indicated the presence of the nerve agent cyclosarin and an unspecified blister agent in a stash of 55-gallon drums, the officer said.
The find was made public Sunday -- the same day that Pentagon officials said they had arrested Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin, who headed the prewar National Monitoring Directorate and was in charge of the liaison between Baghdad and U.N. inspectors looking for weapons of mass destruction.
The suspect drums were found by the U.S. Army's 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry, near two mobile laboratory that soldiers said could have been used to mix chemicals, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Ted Martin said.
The soldiers also said they found 150 high-grade gas masks at the former Iraqi military position about 40 miles [64 kilometers] north of Tikrit, the hometown of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, 130 miles [208 kilometers] north of Baghdad.
Other suspicious chemicals initially reported to be weapons of mass destruction have, on further testing, turned out to be pesticides or other industrial chemicals.
U.N. orders ban Iraq from possessing the blister agent and cyclosarin, which the International Institute for Strategic Studies says can cause shortness of breath, muscle spasms, unconsciousness and death. (Full story)
Amin was No. 49 on the Pentagon's list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis and the 13th to be taken into custody. His image appeared on the six of clubs in the deck of cards issued to help coalition troops identify wanted Iraqis.
The monitoring directorate worked with U.N. weapons inspectors looking for chemical, biological or nuclear weapons outlawed by U.N. resolutions in 1991 after the Persian Gulf War.
Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Sunday that U.N. inspectors are "the best ones to do the job" of searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and should be allowed to go back to work as soon as possible.
"We are the ones who have the most credibility, not because we're the only ones who are trustworthy but because of who we are -- we are the representatives of the international community; we have the independence and impartiality that create that credibility," ElBaradei said on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer." (Full story)
Meanwhile, U.S. officials met Sunday with former Baghdad municipal workers in an effort to get a new government running.
Baghdad's deputy mayor also met with U.S. officials from the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance to work on reconnecting utilities that have been shut off to some areas.
The interim administrator for Iraq, retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, has said his goal is to reopen Iraqi government ministries this week.
Garner is to hold a conference Monday of anti-Saddam organizations looking at how to help form a provisional government for Iraq.
Up to 400 delegates are expected for the second conference in a series -- the first attracted fewer than 100 Iraqis -- designed to identify potential leaders, The Associated Press reported.
Jordan's King Abdullah II told CNN on Sunday that it was important for the coalition to leave Iraq as quickly as possible and hand over the country to Iraqis.
"Unfortunately, I think just the necessities on the ground mean they'll be there longer than everybody would like," he said. Those necessities include restoring order, finding Iraqis to fill key roles and preparing for the international community to step in, he said. (Full story)
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, at the beginning of a Middle East tour on which he will also brief and thank the military, met with United Arab Emirates leaders Sunday.
Gen. Tommy Franks, Central Command chief and head of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, flew in from neighboring Qatar to take part in the talks in Abu Dhabi. Franks said former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, who was taken into custody Thursday, has been answering questions, but it is not yet clear whether he is giving truthful answers. (Full story)
Other developments
• Ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been trained to use explosive vests like those used by suicide bombers and could blow himself up rather than face capture, an Iraqi opposition leader said Sunday. Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, said Iraqi intelligence officers passed the information to his group. (Full story)
• Four U.S. soldiers were wounded, one of them seriously, in an ambush Sunday morning in downtown Baghdad, U.S. Central Command said. U.S. Army Civil Affairs soldiers were traveling in two vehicles on a "public health-related mission," when they were "engaged with small-arms fire from an assailant who approached them while the vehicles were stopped in traffic," Central Command said.
• Responding to Iraqi gunfire, a U.S. soldier was killed and another was wounded Saturday when their Bradley fighting vehicle rolled over in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit, U.S. Central Command reported Sunday. The wounded soldier is being treated in a hospital, according to Central Command.
• Iraqi opposition parties ended a three-day meeting in Madrid, Spain, on Sunday by issuing a declaration calling for a "pluralist, federal democratic system in Iraq" -- and for Saddam to stand trial for crimes against humanity. (Full story)
• U.S. troops arrested Mohammed Mohsen Ali al-Zubaidi, the Iraqi exile who proclaimed himself Baghdad's mayor, Sunday for "exercising authority that was not his," coalition spokesman Capt. David Connolly said. Seven other people were arrested with him, Connolly said.
• Documents found in the rubble of an Iraqi intelligence building are evidence of a direct link between Iraq and the al Qaeda terrorist network, according to a British newspaper quoted by The Associated Press. (Full story)
-- CNN correspondents Chris Burns, Kyra Phillips, Jane Arraf, Dana Bash, Jill Dougherty, David Ensor, John King, Nic Robertson and Barbara Starr, and producer Terry Frieden, contributed to this report. | |
