Seven Nuclear Sites Looted

Seven nuclear facilities in Iraq were heavily damaged or destroyed by mass lootings that began with the arrival of US ground forces in Iraq in April. Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and U.N. resolutions, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has the sole legal authority to carry out inspections of the nuclear sites. But all that changed with the Iraq War. IAEA has even had to request the United States' permission to access these sites. Ironically, US military action in Iraq was intended to contain and reduce the use of technology of mass destruction. Instead, these lootings of nuclear sites suggest that technical documents, sensitive equipment and radiation sources might now end up in the hands of someone who might use them to develop a radiological bomb. – YaleGlobal