An UNMOVIC weapons inspection team visited the Waziriyah site of the Al Karama General Company, which is located in the northern outskirts of Baghdad. The site is one of Iraq's principal missile development sites, and in later years has had overall responsibility for development of the Al Samoud liquid propellant missile.
In 1998, the site contained a number of pieces of equipment tagged by the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) and several monitoring cameras. None of these are currently present at the facility. It was claimed that some had been destroyed by the bombing of the site; some had been transferred to other sites.
Waziriyah is currently an engineering design and research and development site, as well as being the headquarters of the Al Karama Company. The UNMOVIC team was able to carry out the inspection tasks that had been planned.
The IAEA inspection team went to three small industrial sites, two of which had never been accessed by any inspection teams before. These sites are located approximately 20 km north of Baghdad. Access was granted immediately and inspections were completed as planned, with the cooperation of the Iraqi counterpart.
The three sites proved to be dedicated to the production of alcohol.
Hiro Ueki
Spokesman for UNMOVIC and the IAEA in Baghdad