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Proliferation Of Drones Heralds Coming Era Of "Unmanned Combat"
Washington (AFP) Mar 11, 2003 Struggling for the United Nations support to forcibly disarm Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Monday the world should be concerned about Iraq's continuing development of deadly weapons. The discovery last week by US intelligence that Iraq had developed drone aircraft capable of dispensing chemical weapons "should be of concern to everybody," Powell said after a meeting with Foreign Minister Francois Fall of Guinea, and that the discovery may be another violation by Baghdad of UN resolutions. The fuel capacity of the unmanned aerial vehicle enables it to fly beyond the 150km range limit imposed by the United Nations. That was aside "from the fact that it may contain biological and chemical weapons," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. He said the UN Security Council was expected to discuss the discovery, made by UN weapons inspectors, during a meeting in New York. US Secretary of State Colin Powell said information provided by UN inspectors about the drone was further evidence that Iraq was not complying with its international obligations. "There is a drone ... that they came upon, that they discovered, that they are not supposed to have and it looks like it is a prohibited item," Powell said. Speaking on Fox News, he indicated Washington would use the discovery of the unmanned aircraft, which apparently has a wingspan of eight metres, to put further pressure on doubters within the UN Security Council to back military action against Iraq. "It is the kind of thing we'll be making some news about in the course of the week," he said.
Iraq Halts Al-Samoud Production, Number Of UN Inspectors Falls Ueki said three more banned Al-Samoud 2 missiles, nine warheads and a launcher were destroyed under UN supervision on Tuesday. He added that the number of UN inspectors in Iraq had fallen to 71, from more than 100 at the end of February, but denied the fall was part of evacuation plans ahead of an anticipated US-led war.
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