Arms hidden in mosques: Iraq Opp

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is hiding chemical and biological weapons in hospitals and mosques to thwart the UN inspection mission to Bag...

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is hiding chemical and biological weapons in hospitals and mosques to thwart the UN inspection mission to Baghdad.

Saddam was moving documents and materials from weapons laboratories and a ballistic-missile site into hospitals, schools and mosques in the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, said Ayad Alawi, the leader of Iraqi National Accord (INA), an Opposition group close to the regime.

The concealment operation was being co-ordinated by Brigadier General Walid al-Nasri, a trusted aide from Saddam’s home region of Tikrit who reports directly to Qusay Hussein, Saddam’s second son and head of his powerful state security organisation, Alawi was quoted on Sunday by a media report as saying.

Story continues below this ad

Saddam was building underground vaults to hide weapons laboratories, Adnan al-Haideri, an Iraqi civil engineer who defected to US last year claimed, the report said.

Giving credence to Al-Haideri’s claims were US spyplanes, fitted with a device that detects underground voids — such as bunkers and tunnels — through variations in the earth’s gravitational field.

The device found a void where Al-Haideri said there was a subterranean nerve-agent laboratory.

EAM Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Rubio hold bilateral discussions in New York

India23 min ago

Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar and US Senator Rubio met in New York to discuss the 25% tariff on Indian oil imposed by Trump. This was their first in-person meeting since the Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting. India and the US also began talks for a trade agreement, with positive discussions during a recent visit by US trade officials to India.

View all shorts

Live Blog