All news on this page courtesy of the The Telegraph Newspaper, London, UK

15/February/1998

Iraq deployed anthrax during 1991 Gulf war

By Con Coughlin

Porton Down alert for germ war on Britain

THE Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein deployed substantial quantities of anthrax and other biological weapons in Kuwait for use against Allied soldiers during the 1991 Gulf war, The Telegraph can exclusively reveal.

A top-secret investigation by United Nations weapons investigators has confirmed that large quantities of weapons-grade anthrax were deployed in Kuwait and southern Iraq following Saddam's invasion of the Gulf emirate in August 1990. While the UN investigation has been unable to determine whether Iraq deliberately used the bacteria against Allied troops, it has found incontrovertible evidence that lethal quantities of anthrax were deployed.

The revelation will add to claims by Gulf war veterans that the condition known as Gulf war syndrome, which has afflicted thousands of veterans in Britain and the US, was caused by troops being exposed to chemical and biological weapons during the eight-month campaign.

UN officials launched the investigation after more than 100 sheep died in unusual circumstances after being allowed to graze in an area that formed one of the Iraqi's main defensive positions during the war. The sheep, which belonged to a Bedouin family, died after grazing in an area west of Kuwait and to the south of the main highway leading to Saudi Arabia.

During the war this area was filled with Iraqi trenches. When Iraqi soldiers fled in the face of the Allied ground offensive in February 1991, the trenches were filled with oil and set alight. After the war the Kuwaiti authorities spent hundreds of millions of dollars cleaning up the area, concentrating on dealing with the oil pollution. Teams of international experts also examined the area for traces of chemical or biological weapons, without success. In early 1993 the Kuwait government declared the area safe and designated it suitable for agricultural use.

Soon afterwards scores of sheep died and members of the Bedouin family tending them developed deep skin lesions. Further examination of the Bedouin shepherds and their flocks revealed that they had been contaminated with the type of anthrax bacterium developed for use in biological weapons. Anthrax is fatal in humans only if it enters the body directly, such as through inhalation.

Details of the outbreak, which were investigated by Kuwaiti authorities, were kept a closely guarded secret for fear of damaging Kuwait's attempts to return to normality after the devastation inflicted by the Iraqi invasion and Operation Desert Storm. But some details of the incident were passed to Unscom in Iraq, for officials to verify the precise nature of the anthrax attack and the possibility of further outbreaks.

Iraqi officials were at first vague about their deployment of chemical and biological weapons during the war. Eventually Unscom officials were told that quantities of anthrax had been stored in Kuwait and southern Iraq. One official even suggested that Iraqi troops had "used" anthrax in a military capacity during the war, but could not be more precise.

Gulf war commanders made it abundantly clear to Baghdad from the outset of Operation Desert Storm that, in the event of the Iraqis using biological or chemical weapons against Allied troops, their response would be devastating. Saddam was left in no doubt that Baghdad would be destroyed by tactical nuclear weapons.

While UN officials have not been able to rule out the possibility that Saddam ordered anthrax and other biological weapons to be used against Allied troops, they are now certain that substantial quantities of anthrax were deployed in Kuwait and Iraq. "This incident shows that Saddam not only has a biological weapons capability, but that he is not afraid to use it," said an official close to the UN investigation.

Gulf war veterans' associations in Britain and the United States will be demanding further details about the Kuwait incident. At least 1,880 of the 51,000 British troops who served in the Gulf claim to have been affected by Gulf war syndrome. Until now they have blamed the condition on precautions taken against chemical and biological attack. But the Pentagon recently admitted that 100,000 troops may have been exposed to doses of Iraqi nerve gas when American troops blew up an Iraqi arms dump.

Veterans' groups will now investigate whether British and US troops who took part in Desert Storm could have been affected by Saddam's anthrax stockpiles in Kuwait.

"If the bacteria was still active in 1993, then the probability is that it was even more effective in 1991," said a biological weapons expert. "In which case it is more than likely that some Allied troops - and Iraqi soldiers - were contaminated."