Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 12, 1991 TAG: 9102120284
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA LENGTH: Medium
A U.S. military official said Monday that mines sown in southern Kuwait may contain nerve and mustard gases as a way of thwarting an allied attack on that front.
The official said the Iraqis had laid an estimated half million mines along the Kuwaiti and Iraqi borders. Many of them, he said, may contain not only chemical weapons, but also may be made of hard-to-detect plastics. They may have as little metal as that found in the spring of a ballpoint pen.
"We recognize the Iraqis were involved in mine warfare for nine years against the Iranians," said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition he not be identified. "They bought large quantities from everyone in the world who would sell them, and the mines they have include the most sophisticated they can buy."
The official said that the mines could well be armed with the same kind of chemicals used to kill both Iranian troops and Kurdish rebels in the conflict in the 1980s. The use of such chemicals in warfare is banned by international law and has been since World War I, but the Iraqis consistently have threatened to use them against the allies attempting to retake Kuwait.
The most common way of delivering the chemical weapons is by air or artillery.
The use of chemical mines is but one problem facing allied troops as they attempt to advance on the Iraqi front lines.
The military official said that getting to the Iraqis would involve going through wire, trenches, berms and other obstacles, including burning ditches. The Iraqis have learned their method of laying obstacles from the Soviets, who believe in a tiered system of defenses.
Ironically, the lineup of obstacles is one of the things U.S. officials believe is causing so few desertions across the line. They have speculated that Iraqi troops simply cannot get through their own deadly maze.
The official said that mine fields present such terror to troops that they can slow down a ground assault by hours, as soldiers gingerly make their way through the explosives. He gave the example of two battalions of troops, both of which went through a mine field. But the one, not realizing there were mines because there was incoming mortar fire, made it through quickly; the other battalion took two hours and heavy casualties.
While much of the technique of traversing a mine field has been around for decades, there are some new wrinkles, including such devices as fuel air explosives. Those bombs, dropped by parachute, deliver a spray of gasoline over a large area, which is then detonated, causing a high-pressure blast that can knock out some types of mines. The disadvantage, said the U.S. official, is that the parachute drops can be inaccurate and that not all mines are detonated.
Bombs dropped from airplanes also can detonate some mines. But, again, the shrapnel pattern may not get them all.
When the allies do go through a mine field, they probably will begin with what is called a mine-clearing line charge, which is a string of explosives fired across a targeted area.
That would be followed by heavy equipment moving across the mine field, digging up or detonating the explosives. The method of finding mines in some cases also might be as simple as a soldier with a mine detector.
The official said American troops were prepared for the possibility of mine fields filled with chemical weapons.
by CNB