ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 4, 1996 TAG: 9608050144
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: The Washington Post
NOTE: Lede
U.S. military personnel in Saudi Arabia are operating under the threat of imminent terrorist attack, not only from huge car bombs and chemical weapons but also from a possible new danger - powerful mortars that can fire projectiles long distances, Defense Secretary William Perry said Saturday.
The threat of mortar attack is one reason 4,000 U.S. Air Force personnel are moving from the Khobar Towers housing complex in Dhahran, the target of the June 25 truck bomb that killed 19 people to a remote desert air base 60 miles south of Riyadh, U.S. military officials said.
In addition, about 700 school-age children and other family members of U.S. military personnel are being ordered to leave Saudi Arabia to reduce the size of the American military community in the capital, Riyadh.
U.S. defense officials have grown increasingly concerned about the possibility of terrorists or other military forces hostile to the United States mounting attacks using transportable mortars, U.S. military officials said. American soldiers in Bosnia are on guard against mortar attacks, in part because of the widespread use of these weapons there in recent years, particularly by Serb forces ringing Sarajevo.
Moreover, international intelligence officials have spent months investigating Iranian mortar parts and shells found hidden in a shipment of pickles aboard an Iranian freighter docked at Antwerp last March, according to private intelligence experts and published reports. The shipment was bound for Munich.
Israeli officials said the mortar was intended for use in terrorist attacks on Jewish or Israeli targets in Europe. But an Iranian dissident organization claimed the mortar - and another it says was discovered near one of its offices in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad - were intended for use in an attack on them.
The Iranian mortars are of a design that can be disassembled and transported in trunks by terrorists, said the group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The 320mm mortar can be shot by using a delayed-firing fuse, giving attackers time to escape, they said.
``The terrorists are becoming increasingly sophisticated'' in their choice of weaponry, a senior U.S. military official said Saturday. ``If we're to stand and do our mission in Saudi Arabia, we have to find new ways to protect our forces.''
Speaking Saturday to reporters at the Pentagon about his trip last week to Saudi Arabia, Perry said the 3,000-to 5,000-pound truck bomb that destroyed the Dhahran building used military explosives with a military detonator.
He added that the bomb's sophistication is one reason he stated in an interview with National Public Radio Friday that he believes investigators will conclude the bombers had ``an international connection'' in the assault.
But Perry also backed off other statements he made on the radio program: that the Saudis are close to completing their investigation of the blast and that ``possibly'' Iran was responsible.
``I don't know what conclusion the investigators are coming to,'' said Perry Saturday, adding he did not ask the Saudis.
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: William Perry\Softens talk about Iranby CNB