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U.N. experts inspect Iraqi nuclear site

BAGHDAD June 8. U.N. experts were to continue their first post-war inspection of Iraq's largest nuclear plant today after expressing fears that thousands were poisoned when the site was looted in the wake of the war.

In sporadic unrest that has gripped parts of Iraq since Saddam Hussein's fall, a U.S. soldier was killed and four others were wounded yesterday in an attack near Mr. Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, north of Baghdad, the U.S. military's Central Command (Centcom) said.

The troops came under fire with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms.

A U.S. patrol also came under fire late yesterday on the northern edge of the tense city of Fallujah and returned fire killing one person, the Centcom said, while a second attacker fled the scene.

The latest attack brought the toll among U.S. troops to 28 since the war was declared virtually ended on May 1, according to an AFP count.

Attacks on the U.S. troops have been frequent in Fallujah, 50 km west of Baghdad, and on Thursday, one soldier was killed and five others wounded in an attack in the city.

The coalition earlier this week sent reinforcements to Fallujah and other hotspot areas west of the capital in an effort to control the unrest.

Also yesterday, the U.S.-led administration warned Iraq's largest Shia Muslim faction it needed to disarm its military wing or face the consequences.

The administration welcomed promises made by leaders of the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) that its militiamen would lay down their arms but had yet to see them being honoured on the ground.

AFP

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