The U.S. daily *** New York Times **** recently reported that the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had applied radioactive bombs against the Islamic Republic on three occasions in 1987.

The daily, which attributed its report to informed sources on the UN investigation team in Iraq, did not describe exactly what type of radioactive bombs was used by Iraq during its imposed war on Iran, but experts believe that they could have been DU (depleted uranium) bombs that spread radioactive particles over a wide area.

According to the members of the UN investigation team, each radioactive bomb weighed nearly one ton and was four meters long. The illness caused by exposure to the radiation from these bombs was characterized by severe nausea and vomiting, headache and diarrhea, cancer in the long run and deformity of fetus.

The report added that the bombs targeted military bases, industrial units, airports and populous areas.

The informed sources also told the daily that, after using the three radioactive bombs against the Islamic Republic, Saddam was not satisfied with the results and stopped using more of them.

This is further evidence of war crimes committed by Saddam Hussein and collaboration of the West in this regard. The fact is that during the Iraqi imposed war, most of the Western media denied reports that Iraq was using weapons of mass destruction against the Islamic Republic, since the technology and materials to produce these weapons were provided by Western countries.

In general, the Iraqi dictator received great backing and military and financial assistance from most of the Western countries and their satellites in the region during its war with Iran. It is no longer a secret that Western countries like Germany provided Iraq with the materials to manufacture nuclear and chemical weapons, which were used against Iranian military forces and civilians, many of whom were martyred and others are still suffering as a result.

However, the details of such assistance were not revealed until Iraq invaded its neighbor Kuwait. Then, the Western countries realized that it was time to destroy the stockpiles of arms supplied by them to the Iraqi regime. The U.S.-led bombing of certain targets in Iraq in 1991 was aimed at destroying these weapons, and the UN weapons inspectors were later sent to Iraq to dig out all the remaining arms still kept by that country.