BAGHDAD, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- At least four Iraqi weapons scientists have been killed by fellow Iraqis before U.S. officials could interrogate them, the Washington Times said Monday.
Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., has called on the Bush administration to better publicize the killings as proof Saddam Hussein's loyalists are still hiding something.
"I want the world to be informed that these individuals are being assassinated, and it's not because they have a new cooking recipe," Buyer said.
One particular disappointment for U.S. authorities came last spring, when an unidentified chemical weapons expert was killed at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison by a mortar shell.
The man was not cooperative at first, but seemed to be ready to offer up information just before he was killed.
David Kay, who led the weapons search until he resigned in December, said two other scientists cooperating with the Iraq Survey Group were killed.
"We think it was because, in fact, he was engaged in discussion with us," Kay said of one of the killings.
