Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 9, 1993                   TAG: 9309090169
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder Newspapers
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CHEMICAL ATTACK MAY HAVE CAUSED TROOPS' SYMPTOMS

Thousands of other veterans became ill after toxic vapors were released during allied bombing of Iraqi chemical weapons factories, the investigation found.

The Defense Department has maintained that the Iraqis did not use chemical weapons during the 1991 hostilities.

However, the doctor leading the department's investigation of "Gulf War syndrome" is "not ruling out" the possibility that upward of 4,000 U.S. soldiers are suffering the aftereffects of low-level exposure to chemical weapons, one of his aides said.

Maj. Gen. Ronald Blanck, commander of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, told congressional investigators Tuesday that low-level exposure to chemical agents may be responsible for the syndrome, symptoms of which include memory loss, aching muscles and joints, intestinal and heart disorders, fatigue and psychiatric problems.

It was first thought that the syndrome was caused by U.S. armor-piercing tank shells, which are made out of super-hard depleted uranium, but the military has ruled that out. Studies continue into whether fumes from widespread oil fires may have triggered the illnesses. Some defense experts think a combination of factors might be to blame.

During the opening days of the war, U.S. troops were outfitted with gas masks and protective gear because Iraq threatened to unleash "an unusual force" that "will astonish our enemies." In the late 1980s, Iraq bombed Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq with mustard gas, killing more than 4,000.

Shortly after the threat was issued, an Iraqi Frog missile, capable of carrying warheads containing more than one kind of poison, landed near an ammunition-supply unit close to the Saudi-Kuwait border.

The congressional investigation, led by Sen. Donald Riegle, D-Mich., found that 85 of the unit's 110 members have fallen ill with symptoms associated with Gulf War syndrome.

After a Frog missile landed near a Navy construction unit, 100 of its 725 members have become sick, the investigators reported.

People in both units were ordered not to talk about the attacks.

"There is a large body of evidence linking Gulf War syndrome symptoms to the exposure of Gulf War participants to chemical warfare agents and possibly to biological toxins," according to the report, written by Riegle's staff with help from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

"No other explanation proves as compelling," it says.

British soldiers also have begun complaining of an illness similar to that suffered by the Americans.

In July, the Czech government acknowledged that some of its Gulf War troops detected airborne traces of mustard gas and the deadly chemical agent Sarin after allied air strikes against Iraqi arsenals.

Several veterans of the Gulf War said U.S. chemical warfare alarms regularly sounded near units that were not under direct attack. The alarms evidently were triggered by poisonous agents spewed into the air by allied attacks on Iraqi weapons sites.

A strong wind blew the mists southward in a wide swath over U.S. troops, according to Riegle's research.

Something in the air "burned your eyes . . . and stung your skin bad," according to U.S. servicemen quoted in the congressional study.

Riegle said he will ask for $4 million to study the potential link as the Senate debates the 1994 defense bill this week.