Weapons inspectors visit brewery, 7UP bottling plant

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.N. arms inspectors made surprise visits to a brewery and a 7UP bottling plant Wednesday in their continuing search for banned chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in Iraq.

The inspectors also appeared unannounced at a missile maintenance factory and a truck repair company, where the owner complained they had disrupted his New Year's holiday. All four inspections occurred in or near Baghdad.

In related developments, U.S. and British warplanes attacked an Iraqi radar system Wednesday after it was moved into the no-fly zone 240 miles southeast of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The radar near al-Qurnah was a threat to coalition aircraft, U.S. Central Command said in a statement on its Web site.

The official Iraqi News Agency said the planes attacked civilian installations, killing one person and wounding two others. The U.S. statement made no mention of casualties.

And an article in Iraq's army newspaper said a threatened U.S. invasion was sure to fail because the Bush administration does not understand "the Iraqi character, nor the intimate deep relationship between it and the land of Iraq."

Iraq could avoid a possible U.S. military strike and eventually see the lifting of economic sanctions imposed after its invasion of neighboring Kuwait in 1990 if it can convince U.N. inspectors it has no such weapons or the capability to manufacture them.

The inspectors made a first visit to the al-Magd company, which repairs heavy trucks, and a return visit to the Al-Harith workshop, which does maintenance work on aging Soviet-designed SA-2, SA-3 and SA-6 anti-aircraft missile systems.

The U.N. statement said the al-Harith facility contained electronics equipment and corrosion-resistant materials.

Bad timing

At the al-Magd company, assistant director Khudeir Abbas told reporters the visit to his workshop lasted only about an hour and described the inspectors' conduct as "very professional."

But Abbas was clearly unhappy with the visit's timing. "Today is an official holiday and the beginning of the new year," he said, "yet we were forced to receive them."

It was the third time in a week that Iraqi officials have complained about the U.N. inspectors' methods. On Monday, the manager of a missile factory accused arms inspectors making their fourth visit of "storming in," disrupting work and "acting like gangs."

Last Thursday, Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin, chief liaison to the U.N. arms experts, said the inspectors were not coordinating well with their Iraqi counterparts, sometimes calling at 6 a.m. to arrange visits that day. Later he complained that some inspectors upset managers at one inspection site by not explaining why they were conducting a search.

The inspectors have been in Iraq since Nov. 27 under the auspices of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441, which entitles them to visit any facility or property at any time. The resolution warns Baghdad of serious consequences if it fails to comply with the inspections.

During the last round of inspections, after the 1991 Gulf War, the United Nations destroyed tons of Iraqi chemical and biological weapons and dismantled Iraq's nuclear weapons program. But the inspectors do not believe they had found all of Iraq's banned arsenal by the time they left ahead of U.S. and British airstrikes in late 1998.

On Tuesday, President Bush termed Iraq's response to the current round of inspections "disappointing," and U.S. military officials revealed that more American infantry troops were being sent to the Gulf to ready for a possible war.

In its New Year's Day editorial, the official daily Al-Jumhuriya said that Iraqis remained united under Saddam's leadership in 2003 and were ready to defeat "any unjust aggression that might be launched by the bullies of the U.S. administration."

The army newspaper Al-Qadissiya, citing Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia, said the U.S. military has a poor track record overseas because it fails to understand the way other nations think.

"This means that America, which claims it knows the world countries better than they know themselves, is like a blind old woman who does not know where her legs are taking her and in which pit she will fall," the newspaper said.