[TexKat]

Possible Iraqi Nuclear Barrels Recovered

WASHINGTON - American forces have gathered more than 100 metal barrels and five radiological devices which Iraqis may have looted from the country's largest nuclear storage site, Pentagon officails said Thursday.

None of the people who turned in the contraband for rewards of $3 showed any more than background levels of radiation, the military officials said. And none of the equipment was emitting more radiation than slightly above background levels, they said.

But American officials still aren't sure what else may have been stolen from the Tuwaitha nuclear complex during the war, said three top military and Defense Department officials who briefed reporters on the issue on condition they not be named.

[TexKat]

American Troops to Accompany UN Nuclear Team in Iraq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. forces will accompany inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency while they visit a key Iraqi nuclear site, and their limited mission sets no precedent for any future role for the agency in Iraq, Defense Department officials said on Thursday.

A senior U.S. military official, speaking by telephone from Baghdad, also said Army health officials were arriving in Iraq to gauge if American troops had been exposed to medical risks while at the looted Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center.