US has searched Iraq sites suspected of being weapons stockpile: Myers

WASHINGTON (AFP) Apr 11, 2003
The US military has inspected sites around the Al-Qaim region of western Iraq where there were suspicions that weapons of mass destruction were stored, the head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday.

General Richard Myers told a Defence Department press briefing that fighting around Al-Qaim appeared to be ending.

"There have been intelligence reports that the leaders in Qaim want to surrender so I think that's going to be worked out today and tomorrow," said the top US military officer.

Iraq could fire missiles from Al-Qaim into Saudi Arabia and Jordan and the United States had suspected that there were sites with chemical or biological weapons in the region.

A uranium extraction plant at Al-Qaim, which is about 380 kilometersmiles) northwest of Baghdad, was destroyed during the 1991 Gulf War.

The United States has yet to report the discovery of any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that had been one of the US justifications for the war started on March 20.

SPACE.WIRE