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- WORLD, Page 35World NotesIRAQSome Deadly New Toys
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- Ever since Iraq credited its use of medium-range missiles
- against Iran with bringing a halt to the gulf war in 1988, the
- regime of President Saddam Hussein has relentlessly pursued
- high-tech advances in its military hardware.
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- Last week Baghdad claimed to have scored not one but two
- such gains: the successful firing of a three-stage rocket
- capable of lifting satellites into space, and the test firing
- of two surface-to-surface missiles with a range of 1,240 miles,
- more than twice that of the ones thought to be currently in the
- Iraqi arsenal.
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- Both claims had a slightly empty ring. Baghdad almost
- certainly does not possess a satellite or the technology to
- build one. As for the missiles, Western analysts express some
- doubts about the accuracy of any longer-range missiles under
- development in Iraq.
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