Three Iraqis killed in a raid against Southern Iraq; Questioning head of Technology University
The UN inspectors yesterday made the second special interview with one of the Iraqi scientists working in the Iraqi chemical, biological and nuclear programs.
They yesterday questioned the chairman of the Technology university in Baghdad Mazin Muhammad Ali Jum'a after they had questioned the nuclear scientists Sabah Abdul Nour at the same University.
Meantime, three Iraqis were killed and other 16 were wounded in a raid carried out by American and British planes and targeted civilian installations in the provinces of al-Basra and al-Nasereyah, according to an Iraqi military spokesman.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi news agency said that the raid targeted a mosque in al- Nasereyah town.
In Washington, the US defense department said that the coalition planes bombarded an Iraqi telecommunications center near al-Talil to the south of Iraq " in retaliation to the Iraqi attacks."
The Pentagon said that the coalition planes " used very monitored weapons" in the raid. This raid came just three days after downing an American pilotless reconnaissance plane in southern Iraq on which Washington said it was downed by a missile fired by an Iraqi plane in the so-called "no fly zone."
Following his questioning, the chairman of the Technology university said that four UN inspectors asked him about the activities of the chemical engineers and asked him for a list in the number of students and teachers and that he handed the list over to them. He added that representatives for the national control commission attended the meeting which lasted for two hours and held away from media coverage.
The UN inspectors also questioned heads of departments at the university and inspected equipment set by the special inspection UNSCOM in 1998 in one of the factories of the chemical engineering.
Jum'a stressed that the chemical engineering department at the university "Do not give studies for the ministry of defense or for the military men," noting that the inspectors were very "professional and know what they do want." The spokesman for the inspectors Hero Yuwaki said in a statement on Tuesday that a team from the international agency of the atomic energy made, at its own request, held "long talks" with the Iraqi scientist Sabah Abdul Nour from the technology university in Baghdad, noting that this interview "is a resumption of the ordinary questioning which stopped in 1998," when the UN inspectors left Iraq.
Abdul Nour with whom meetings were made during former inspection operations in the 1990s said that the meeting was "friendly," noting that the inspectors approved his request for the presence of an Iraqi official at the meeting as an observer. Yuwaki said that an "Iraqi witness" was there.