VIENNA/BAGHDAD, 7 May 2003 — The United Nation’s nuclear watchdog agency is concerned that material suitable for use in “dirty” bombs that spread atomic radiation could be stolen from nuclear sites in Iraq, a spokesperson said yesterday. Melissa Fleming of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency told AFP there were “radioactive sources that could be used in dirty bombs” at Al-Tuwaitha site south of Baghdad where there has been reported looting.
Terrorists could make such “dirty bombs” by attaching radioactive material to a conventional explosive such as dynamite to spread it over a wide area. The IAEA wants its inspectors to return to Iraq to monitor nuclear sites but State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington on Monday that the United States has not decided whether to let the UN nuclear inspectors back in.
Fleming refused to elaborate on the nature of the “radioactive sources” but said they could be materials such as are used for medical tasks. She said the IAEA had no information whether such material had been looted or not. Boucher also provided no information in his comments Monday about whether dangerous materials had been looted. “Coalition forces have secured the facilities that housed the natural and low enriched uranium that was at those sites,” Boucher said, referring further questions on security to the Pentagon.
Fleming said there was “tons of natural uranium” at the Al-Tuwaitha site but that this material, known as “yellowcake,” was not suitable for dirty bombs. She said the IAEA had removed or destroyed highly enriched uranium, fissile material that can be used in a nuclear bomb, from Iraq before its inspectors left in 1998. She said the current concern was over so-called “radioactive sources” and that there were over 1,000 of them in Iraq, “including large numbers that were stored in Tuwaitha.”
Meanwhile, US troops in Iraq say finding Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD) is not yet a top priority despite mounting pressure on Washington to justify the war with hard evidence. Officers with the 4th Infantry Division in northern Iraq said security and force protection were still their main focus as ground troops fanned out and as work on a new government began in Baghdad.
“The NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) operations are being looked at as more important than (in other wars) but they’re not the main priority, which is establishing security,” said Capt. Bobbie Jackson, chemicals officer for the division’s 2nd Brigade. “Once all the pockets of resistance are cleared up I think the search will intensify.”
In another development, General Secretary of the Austrian Red Cross Wolfgang Kopetzky, currently visiting Amman, in remarks quoted in Vienna yesterday said the health care system in postwar Iraq is “disastrous.” In an interview with the Austria Press Agency, he said the most vital medical items were lacking such as throwaway vaccination needles and first aid packages. Kopetzky was visiting Jordan together with Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner to find out what Austrian aid is needed in the region.
Three US soldiers were injured yesterday when a suspected US cluster bomb exploded inside a major US base in northern Iraq, officers said. The soldiers from the 3-16 Artillery Battalion of the 4th Infantry Division were walking across a dirt field inside the base when the device exploded around noon. Surgeon Robert Tyler, who was the first doctor at the scene, said one was in critical condition with shrapnel in his eye and head, another was seriously injured in the elbow and the third was lightly wounded in the torso. All three were immediately evacuated to a combat field hospital about 40 kilometers north of Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province.
