Location: 35km NW of Baghdad

Short Descriptor: BW missile warhead "unilateral destruction" site

Details:

Iraq asserts that all 25 BW warheads were unilaterally destroyed at specific locations at Al-Nibai desert in July 1991. To verify the full, final, and complete disclosure (FFCD), the Commission in 1998 took samples from the remnants of agent warhead containers excavated from various locations at Al-Nibai. The results of the analyses do not support the statements made in Iraq's FFCD. Traces of Bacillus anthracis spores have been identified on remnants of containers from at least seven distinct missile warheads as opposed to the five declared. There are discrepancies between UNSCOM assessments and Iraq's account of where groups of warheads containing particular BW agents were destroyed. This throws doubt on the accounts of weapons filling, deployment, and subsequent destruction.

In response to this evidence, in July 1998, Iraq changed its account of BW warhead and other munitions filling. It stated to a Commission team that, instead of the declared five Bacillus anthracis spore and 16 botulinum toxin warheads, there had been in fact 16 Bacillus anthracis spores and five botulinum toxin missile warheads. Iraq insisted that this change in disclosure would not affect Iraq's declaration on the total quantity of BW agents produced and weaponized. These changes also included alterations to the numbers of R-400 aerial bombs filled with either Bacillus anthracis spores or botulinum toxin. Iraq did not present any supporting documents or other specific evidence to substantiate the new statement. In the original account, Iraq emphatically asserted that all 10 weapons in the Al-Mansuriyah railway tunnel were filled with Bacillus anthracis spores and only later was this changed to botulinum toxin.

Other Information:

Iraq's current declaration states that on 8 July 1991 at 10:00 p.m., 15 special missile warheads arrived at Nibai and were destroyed there on 9 July 1991. To support this claim, Iraq presented a document (picture 1). In order to verify this declaration, UNSCOM checked the available aerial photography of Nibai. As the picture shows, on 9 July 1991, no warheads were present and no destruction activity took place at the declared site (picture 2). This puts UNSCOM in a difficult position: Should it accept inaccurate declarations? [1]

Key Source:
[1] Notes from UNSCOM Briefings to UN Security Council, 3-4 June 1998, http://www.cns.miis.edu/research/iraq/jn98uni.htm.

	Updated February 2006