IRAQ: Initial examination of a tractor-trailer truck turned over to US forces in Iraq indicates it might have been a mobile chemical or biological weapons laboratory, according to a US defence official.
"We have something that is interesting and we continue to look at it," the official said. "Preliminary indications are that it perhaps was part of a mobile chem-bio arms system."
The official, who asked not to be identified, stressed no evidence had been found so far of the presence of such weapons of mass destruction despite investigations of several sites since US-led forces invaded Iraq seven weeks ago. "It was turned over to US forces by Iraqis in late April" in northern Iraq, the official said.
In Paris, a US official told reporters yesterday that Washington might be "quite close" to announcing evidence that weapons of mass destruction had been found. US forces have been searching Iraq for evidence of chemical and biological weapons and nuclear-weapon development, including possible wheeled laboratories.
The US cited the need to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction as a key reason for the war which toppled Saddam Hussein but as yet has not been able to show any such evidence.
Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, said yesterday he would look into a report that France secretly supplied passports to Iraqi officials fleeing after the fall of Saddam, but appeared to play down the story's credibility. "I don't know the source. I don't know if it's accurate or not," he said.
At the White House, spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer said he could not confirm the report but added a cryptic "I think the French will have to explain what they did or did not do".
The Washington Times had reported earlier that France had given passports to Iraqi officials in Syria, allowing them to escape US forces hunting them down by travelling to Europe.
In Iraq, fewer than 2,000 Iraqi prisoners of war remain in a camp in southern Iraq where 7,000 were detained during the war and the rest will be freed soon, US officers have said. About 150 prisoners were freed yesterday morning and given a packed meal and a few cigarettes before boarding buses to take them home.
Fifty more were due to be freed later and the camp was expected to be virtually empty in a week. The first prisoners were released on April 27th and more have been freed every day since. - (Reuters)
Controversial British MP Mr George Galloway was suspended from the Labour Party yesterday day over claims that he urged Arab nations to fight against British and US soldiers in Iraq.
Party chiefs received a series of complaints about remarks Mr Galloway made in an interview to an Arab television station, in which he described the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, and President Bush as "wolves" who had attacked Iraq.
The suspension came as it was confirmed that the parliamentary standards commissioner is to begin inquiries into allegations made by the Daily Telegraph that the Glasgow Kelvin MP received money from Saddam's regime.
The Charity Commission is also looking into the allegations, which Mr Galloway denies and has said he will contest in a libel action against the newspaper.
Mr Galloway said the suspension was "completely unjust" and that he had been "silenced and politically destroyed" for speaking out against war in Iraq. - (PA)