Hussein Visits Offices U.S. Attacked; Parliament Calls Emergency Session

President Saddam Hussein on Monday visited Iraq’s intelligence headquarters, which was hit last week by U.S. missiles, Iraqi television reported.

The main evening news showed a uniformed Hussein talking and laughing with intelligence chief Sabir Abdel-Aziz Douri in a salon at the sprawling intelligence compound. As usual, classical music covered their voices.

It was Douri’s first public appearance since June 27, when U.S. cruise missiles hit the compound in retaliation for what Washington said was an Iraqi plot to kill former President George Bush. Iraq has denied any plot.

The missiles appeared to have gutted at least one of the buildings in the compound, which is believed to have housed communications equipment and to have been involved in surveillance of foreigners.

Meanwhile, Sadi Mahdi Salih, the Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, announced that an emergency assembly meeting will be held Wednesday, according to an Iraqi radio report monitored by the BBC.

Also Monday, a team of U.N. arms experts pulled out of Iraq after failing to persuade it to let them install monitoring cameras at two former missile test sites.

The experts, led by senior inspector Nikita Smidovich of Russia, left Baghdad for Cyprus.

Smidovich said that he met his Iraqi counterparts Monday morning but that they only repeated their position.

Baghdad appeared calm, but there were growing fears of an attack by the Gulf War allies.

People in the capital listened closely to radios throughout the day for news of the standoff. Bullion traders stopped gold and silver trades, and more than 3,000 people protested in front of U.N. offices.