- KUWAIT (Reuters) - Iraq fired
Scud missiles at Kuwait on Thursday, officials said, sending U.S. troops
scrambling into chemical protective suits and setting air raid sirens blaring
in Kuwait City.
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- A Kuwaiti defense ministry spokesman said a U.S. Patriot
anti-missile defense battery brought down two Iraqi Scuds, intercepting
one with three Patriot missiles and the other with a single Patriot.
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- Neither missile was believed to have been carrying chemical
or biological weapons, a Kuwait Interior Ministry official told Reuters.
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- A British spokesman at a joint U.S.-British military
headquarters in Qatar confirmed that Iraq had fired at least one Scud,
and said it was suspected a second had also been launched.
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- "One (Scud) was knocked by a Patriot system. Where
the debris landed I'm not sure. The debris is being investigated at this
moment. What we can say is there are no casualties," the spokesman
said.
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- "They were closer (to U.S. and British troops) than
you'd like, but not desperately close," he said.
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- Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf denied
that Baghdad had any Scuds. The Soviet-designed missiles have a range of
up to 400 miles, exceeding the 90-mile maximum limit imposed on Iraq after
the 1991 Gulf war.
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- "I heard reports that we fired Scud missiles on
Kuwait. I would like to tell you that we don't have Scud missiles and why
they were fired, I don't know," Sahaf told reporters in Baghdad.
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- Earlier on Thursday Iraq fired two other missiles into
Kuwait's northern desert, but Kuwaiti officials described these weapons
as smaller, Chinese-made missiles. The British spokesman said Iraq had
fired two Seersucker anti-ship missiles.
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- TROOPS STRUGGLE WITH PROTECTIVE GEAR
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- As word of the missile attacks came through, U.S. troops
arrayed in northern Kuwait for an invasion of Iraq were given a "bunker
call" to shelter from possible unconventional attack, reporters attached
to the units said.
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- Soldiers were told there was an incoming Scud and were
ordered to move to the highest level of biochemical protection, donning
their protective suits, gas masks, gloves and boots and taking up an attack
position.
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- Troops struggled to don the bulky protective gear and
hunkered down in foxholes dug into the Kuwaiti desert.
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- Ten minutes later they were given the all-clear. Officers
said it was not clear whether the alert was a drill or whether it had been
prompted by an incoming Scud.
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- In Kuwait City, emergency air raid sirens blared three
times during the day, each time followed by an all-clear signal.
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- A security official told Reuters that the city had not
been hit by any Iraqi attack but added that unspecified blasts in the desert
had echoed through the streets and unsettled residents.
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- At the Hilton Hotel, base for the military media operation
in Kuwait, staff, guests and military personnel rushed to a basement shelter
as the alert alarm wailed. U.S. and British soldiers donned gas masks and
the press center was evacuated.
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- A U.S. Army spokesman, Major Max Blumenfeld, described
it as a Scud drill: "I can tell you that as a military person, we're
trained, we're ready, for any possibility. We know what to do."
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- The missile attacks heralded Iraq's retaliation after
the United States bombed Baghdad early on Thursday, launching a war that
President Bush has vowed will topple President Saddam Hussein.
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- Although Iraq denies having Scuds, a British government
report released in September 2002 said Saddam had retained up to 20 of
the missiles following the Gulf War.
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- Other analysts have estimated Iraq retained between 12
and 25 of the missiles, which would be capable of reaching nations including
Israel, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, Turkey and Iran.
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- Baghdad had been destroying its stock of al-Samoud missiles,
a successor to the Scud, under the eyes of United Nations weapons inspectors.
As of this week Iraq had scrapped about 70 of its 120 al-Samouds, which
also exceed the 150-km range limit imposed by the United Nations.
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- (Additional reporting by Angus Macswan)
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