Missiles, mines still threaten Iraqis after war

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - When the summer sun beats down on the metal hovel where Thikri Saeed and her children live, they seek relief outside -- in the shade of a surface-to-air missile mounted on a launcher in front of their home.

More than three months after U.S. and British forces ended Saddam Hussein's rule, about 1,000 surface-to-air missiles are still scattered throughout Iraq.

U.S. and U.N. officials said on Thursday a specialised team had now arrived to assess how to disarm them.

"Something needs to be done and needs to be done fast," UNICEF's Geoff Keele told a news conference. "These things can go off. One has already gone off and slammed into a home killing the occupants of the house."

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"This is a problem because under humanitarian law the Coalition Provisional Authority has the responsibility to deal with these remnants of war. It is their obligation to do so," he said.

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