HOLY CITY OF KARBALA, Iraq: Authorities have seized two former Ba’ath party members accused of killing several Iraqi Mo’mineen (believers) during the 1991 Intifada against deposed dictator Saddam.

“Adnan Nassar and Kazem Al-Ukaili, accused of killing 43 inhabitants of Karbala during the Shia intifada, were arrested by police,” said General Abbas Fadel Al-Hassani, head of police force in this holy city 110 kilometers (70 miles) south of Baghdad on Thursday.

“The two men who had fled Iraq have admitted the crimes,” he added.

After Saddam’s fall in April 2003, “relatives of the victims discovered reports written by these two people about crimes they had committed in the Ba’ath party headquarters in Karbala.”

“Nassar is accused of murdering 20 people and Ukaili of 23 others.”

Meanwhile, a local government source near Nassiriyah, also in southern Iraq, said police had arrested the brother of the former Ba’ath party chief of Diyala province along with three other suspects.

In another development, United Nations weapons inspectors said in a report obtained Thursday that UN satellite imagery experts have determined that material that could be used to make biological or chemical weapons and banned long-range missiles has been removed from 109 sites in Iraq.

UN inspectors have been blocked from returning to Iraq since the US-led war in 2003 so they have been using satellite photos to see what happened to the sites that were subject to UN monitoring because their equipment had both civilian and military uses.

In the report to the UN Security Council, acting chief weapons inspector Demetrius Perricos said he's reached no conclusions about who removed the items or where they went. He said it could have been moved elsewhere in Iraq, sold as scrap, melted down or purchased. He said the missing material can be used for legitimate purposes. “However, they can also be utilized for prohibited purposes if in a good state of repair.”