Baghdad moves its chemical weapons factories

Monday, October 22, 2001

By Jessica Berry in London

Saddam Hussein has relocated his chemical weapons factories after the first case of anthrax poisoning in the United States in apparent anticipation of an imminent bombardment by the US-led coalition.

A senior Western intelligence official said that since the death of a picture editor in Florida on October5 there had been a "mass movement of weapons" to protected no-go areas in the north, north-west and west of Iraq.

"The entire contents of their chemicals weapons factories around Baghdad have been moving through the nights to specially built bunkers," he said.

Before the September11 attacks, Saddam had put his troops on high alert, but little was done at the time to move crucial weaponry. When the Pentagon said it was investigating the possibility that Iraq might not only have been involved in the assault on the New York towers but may also have been behind the anthrax attacks in the US, it began moving its chemical weapons factories.

Western intelligence officers said on Saturday that the north-east region of Hemrin was the centre of most activity. Saddam ordered his troops to dig 18-metre-deep holes in the area and to bury chemical and biological cargo arriving from the capital. Six pits have been dug. Meanwhile, factories that make missiles and chemical weapons had been relocated to Baiji and al-Safar, in the north-west.