UNSCOM resumes surprise inspections in Iraq

UNSCOM experts on Sunday continued surprise inspections of Iraqi sites. The UN inspections left al-Rasheed hotel manning ten cars heading for Iraqi positions.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for UNSCOM said that a team of its inspectors left Baghdad on Sunday, led by Roger Hale, for Bahrain.

The experts left Iraq just days before the date on which chief weapons inspector Richard Butler is to present a report to the UN Security Council regarding the Iraqi authorities' cooperation with the inspection teams.

United Nations officials said that most of the regular inspection operations took place in spite of some problems caused by the Iraqi authorities' refusal to permit the experts into the offices of the ruling Baath Party in Baghdad.

Secretary of the Iraqi national committee in charge of relations with UNSCOM, Lt. Gen. Husam Muhammad Amin, said that 11 teams of inspectors inspected on Sunday some 24 Iraqi sites where they did not find any banned activities.