U.N. Team Finds Parts of Banned Iraqi Missiles

UNITED NATIONS — U.N. weapons experts have found 20 engines used in banned Iraqi missiles in a Jordan scrap yard, along with weapons-making equipment, acting chief U.N. inspector Demetrius Perricos told the Security Council on Wednesday.

The U.N. team was following up on a discovery of a similar Al Samoud 2 engine in a scrap yard in the Dutch port of Rotterdam. Perricos said inspectors wanted to check in Turkey, which also has received scrap metal from Iraq.

The scrap, which is re-exported to various countries, “raises concerns with regard to proliferation risks,” a text of his report said. The U.N. team also discovered other equipment with U.N. tags -- indicating that it was being monitored before the Iraq war -- including heat exchangers and a solid-propellant mixer bowl to make missile fuel, he said. It also discovered “a large number of other processing equipment without tags, in very good condition.”