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U.S.-Led UN Team Ends Iraq Mission




U.S.-Led UN Team Ends Iraq Mission 

 By Eileen Alt Powell
 

 BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Ending a first test of Iraqi compliance with a new
 inspections accord, an American-led team of U.N. weapons experts wound up
 a six-day mission today that took it to a series of sites that Iraq considers
 sensitive. 

 Scott Ritter and the majority of his 50-member team left Iraq today, after
 visiting eight ``sensitive'' sites since arriving Thursday, said Janet Ann Sullivan,
 spokeswoman for the U.N. Special Commission that oversees the inspections. 

 ``All sites were inspected to the satisfaction of the inspection team,'' Sullivan
 said. She would give no other details. 

 ``Sensitive sites'' include ministries and headquarters of intelligence or military
 operations. U.N. teams generally are accompanied by high-ranking Iraqi
 officials on visits to these sites. 

 Iraqi sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said locations visited by
 Ritter included a barracks of the elite Republican Guards and the Defense
 Ministry. 

 Ritter's mission was widely considered a test of Iraq's compliance with its
 Feb. 23 accord with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. 

 In the accord, Iraq agreed to cooperate fully with the U.N. inspectors and to
 open presidential compounds that it earlier had declared off-limits. The accord
 averted a threatened military strike by a U.S.-led coalition. 

 The official Iraqi News Agency quoted Ritter as telling the Iraqi side that he
 ``finished his mission without any problems.'' It gave no other details. 

 .........
 Al-Iraq newspaper, the mouthpiece of pro-government Kurds, said in a
 front-page editorial today that Ritter had ``a record full of conflicts with Iraq''
 and might try to undermine the Annan accord. 

 ``Despite what he has planned to do, he will not get more than what the other
 inspection teams have gotten -- nothing,'' the paper said. 

 ..........


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