home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
TIME: Almanac 1990
/
1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
/
time
/
091889
/
09188900.031
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1990-09-17
|
1KB
|
22 lines
WORLD, Page 59World NotesIRAQBig Bang Theories
A stupendous explosion in a super-secret missile factory,
audible 40 miles away in Baghdad. Up to 700 deaths and an injury
toll approaching 2,500. A roaring fire that took nearly a week to
extinguish. These are some of the details reported last week by
the British daily Independent of a conflagration that erupted on
Aug. 17 at Iraq's Al Hillah military complex. The gist of the story
was later confirmed by British and Egyptian diplomats.
Was the blast accidental? Though Israel is increasingly
concerned about Baghdad's stockpile of long-range missiles, there
was no evidence that the Jewish state had staged a repeat of its
1981 knockout of an Iraqi nuclear facility. Cairo, which aided Iraq
in enhancing the range of missiles used in the gulf war, denied
reports that Egyptian technicians were among the victims.
Eventually, Iraq said that there had indeed been an explosion on
Aug. 17. But Baghdad insisted that only 19 Iraqis had died when an
oil-depot fire spread to a truck loaded with engineering
explosives. Scoffed a senior British diplomat in London: "Not a
very imaginative cover story."