The Iraqi government has told the UN that militants have seized one of late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s former chemical weapons factories, confirming an earlier claim by Washington.
In a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon dated July 1 and made public on Tuesday, Iraqi Ambassador to the UN Mohamed Ali Alhakim said “armed terrorist groups” entered the Muthanna project site on the night of June 11 after disarming the soldiers guarding it.
As such, Baghdad was currently unable to “fulfill its obligations to destroy chemical weapons,” he wrote, adding that “remnants of the [country’s] former chemical weapons program” are kept at the site.
“The government will resume its efforts with regards to its obligations as soon as the security situation has improved and control of the facility has been regained,” he said.
At dawn on June 12, the site’s surveillance system, disabled by “the terrorists,” showed there was “looting of some equipment and appliances,” he wrote.
The letter confirms a June 19 claim by Washington that Sunni radicals had taken control of the facility.
US Department of State spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at the time that she did not think the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants would be able to produce usable chemical weapons there because any materials remaining there were old and unwieldy.
The militants have led a month-old crisis that has seen a jihadist-led alliance overrun large swaths of northern and north-central Iraq, displacing hundreds of thousands.
The complex, located 72km northwest of the Iraqi capital, was used to produce mustard gas and other nerve agents, including sarin, a CIA factsheet said.
In other news, Iraqi security forces yesterday found the bodies of 53 men who had been bound and executed in a province south of Baghdad, police and medical officials said.
The men were found in orchards south of Babil provincial capital Hilla, all with gunshots to the head or chest, in killings reminiscent of the brutal sectarian bloodshed that gripped Iraq in 2006 to 2007.
A mortuary official said the victims were killed at least a week ago. It was not immediately clear why the men were killed, the officials said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number