U.N. inspectors use helicopters to expand their weapons search

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.N. arms experts used helicopters for the first time Tuesday in their search for banned weapons in Iraq, while inspectors on the ground visited at least six sites, including a missile factory and a cancer research center.

Also Tuesday, Iraqi television reported Saddam Hussein's comments in a meeting with military commanders a day earlier in which he renewed warnings that any force that attacked Iraq would face formidable opposition. He said Iraq was a modern country, not an Afghanistan with no organized defense.

"Iraq is different from Afghanistan. It is a rich country," he told the commanders. "Your country is an organized and stable country."

Saddam noted the Iraqi military had learned much from its encounters with American forces, especially in 1998 when the United States and Britain carried out extensive air strikes.

The helicopters used by U.N. arms experts Tuesday were the second step in recent days aimed at improving the search for weapons of mass destruction or programs to develop them. On Saturday, the inspectors opened a new base in Mosul and they've since carried out daily searches around the northern city.

Western journalists were told they could not cover the take-off since it was from a military base, but the Arabic satellite TV channel Al-Jazeera showed white U.N. helicopters lifting off from Baghdad's Al-Rashid military air base. It said three U.N. aircraft were tailed by two military choppers carrying the Iraqi liaison officers who work with the inspectors.

The helicopters were said to be making an aerial survey, but U.N. officials have said the choppers also would make it easier to swoop down on potential weapons sites.

Meanwhile, Britain activated 1,500 reservists Tuesday and ordered a naval amphibious force to the Persian Gulf as part of the military mobilization for possible war with Iraq.

In Paris, French President Jacques Chirac told his armed forces to be prepared for deployment, the clearest suggestion so far that France would participate in a military move against Saddam.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday that Iraq is not complying with U.N. demands that it rid itself of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.

Rumsfeld said a U.S.-led war with Iraq "clearly is not inevitable," but said that American troop buildups in the Persian Gulf would continue.

U.S. warplanes bombed two Iraqi anti-aircraft radars that threatened pilots patrolling the southern no-fly zone.

The planes used precision-guided weapons to target the mobile radar equipment Monday near Al Amarah, about 165 miles southeast of Baghdad, a statement from U.S. Central Command said. The airstrike happened at about 3:30 p.m. EST Monday.

It was the second airstrike this year by American planes patrolling the southern no-fly zone, which was set up to prevent Saddam's government from attacking restive Shiite Muslims in the region. A strike on Saturday targeted three Iraqi air defense communications sites in the same general area as Monday's strike.

Inspectors returned to Iraq on Nov. 25 after a four-year absence, with the mission of verifying that Iraq has eliminated all weapons of mass destruction. U.N. resolutions require Baghdad to do so before economic sanctions imposed on the country after its invasion of neighboring Kuwait in 1990 can be lifted.

In Vienna on Monday, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, which has inspectors in Iraq, said it was still too early to determine whether the Mideast nation was trying to develop nuclear weapons.

"We are not certain of Iraq's (nuclear) capability," Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters in Vienna.

On Tuesday, Iraq's official newspapers reacted with skepticism to comments by President Bush suggesting war was not inevitable. Bush said Monday that Saddam has still "got time" to eliminate all chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and long-range rockets.

The daily Al-Iraq said it was too early to say whether Bush's statement represented "a change or a deception." The Bush administration "may have discovered, even if it is late, that any aggression on our homeland will be costly," it said.

The daily Babil, run by Saddam's son Odai, referred to Bush's remarks as "oral maneuvers" and added: "The United States and the warmongers are still sending more troops to the region."

Echoing a speech by Saddam on Iraq's Army Day Monday, the newspaper's editorial said the U.S. goal was not only to target Iraq, but to control the vast oil resources of the Middle East. It called on fellow Arab states to "abort the ... new savagery."

In his speech, Saddam also accused the U.N. inspectors of carrying out "intelligence work" instead of just searching for weapons. He said the United States had pushed the arms experts to go beyond their legitimate mandate.

The U.S. State Department and IAEA denied the accusations.

Inspectors visited at least six sites Tuesday, including a factory that makes Iraq's Soviet-designed al-Samood missiles, a plant that manufactures small rockets and two water treatment facilities.

They also paid their first visits to the Saddam Center for Cancer Research in Baghdad and the Kubeisa cement factory, just outside the city. The inspectors apparently were interested in the cancer center's radiation techniques, and cement companies can use so-called dual-use materials that may be employed in weapons manufacture.