Mutla Ridge, Kuwait — It came sooner than expected.
A thundering volley of almost a dozen Scuds and other long-range missiles were fired pre-emptively Thursday at civilian and military targets in Kuwait, many hours before U.S. and British forces could launch their ground invasion.
At least one missile was heading toward Kuwait City when it was shot down by Patriot missiles. Late Thursday night, another Iraqi missile was reported to have landed in the water near a Kuwaiti oil-loading terminal.
Iraq long insisted it destroyed all its Scud missiles after the last Persian Gulf war, but the United States and Britain argued that the weapons were merely hidden.
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf denied Thursday that his country had fired any Scuds, or even possessed any. Iraq is not allowed to have missiles with a range greater than 150 kilometres, and last month began to destroy its al-Samoud 2 arsenal after United Nations weapons inspectors determined they exceeded the proscribed limits.
Air-raid sirens wailed across Kuwait repeatedly as its two million people reacted with confusion and fear. Some continued their daily routines, uncertain what to do. Others fled to sealed shelter rooms, scrambling to strap on gas masks. At hotels across the city, workers and guests sprinted down hallways and crowded into basements or specially prepared shelters.
After months of training, U.S. and British soldiers were wearing their chemical- and biological-protection suits in response to the threat for the first time of live missiles, though it was later confirmed that the missiles had no chemical or biological weapons in their warheads.
The attacks allowed the U.S.-led coalition to display the improved technology of its shield of Patriot antimissiles, which shot down several of the Iraqi missiles with much better success than they had in the 1991 Persian Gulf war. Other missiles, including Chinese-made surface-to-ship weapons, landed harmlessly in the desert, though some came dangerously close to Kuwait City.
On the first full day of war, Kuwait City was in the grip of heavy security. Police set up checkpoints around the city to scrutinize motorists' vehicles and identity documents.
Shrugging off the missile attacks, coalition troops kept their supply convoys rolling steadily up the highway toward the Iraqi border; truck drivers calmly wore gas masks and hooded chemical-protection suits as they headed north into the war zone. Some soldiers seemed tense, but others cheerfully waved at television cameras. "We're No. 1!" a U.S. soldier shouted.
Corporal Chris Sutton, a U.S. Marine, was standing at a military checkpoint at Mutla Ridge, north of Kuwait City, when he heard an explosion to the east Thursday morning. His commander ordered his company into the highest level of alert.
"We immediately went into MOPP 4 status, which is gas mask and the whole chemical-protection suit," Cpl. Sutton said later. "We were on alert for a couple of hours until we got the all-clear."
When he finally was able to get out of the suffocatingly hot suit, his first task was to drink several litres of water. "I probably sweated off about two pounds in an hour from the heat. It was an experience. But we train for it all the time. It was just like training."
Kuwaiti soldiers at the same checkpoint were more relaxed, putting on their gas masks for only 10 minutes. "It doesn't matter to us," a soldier said. "We are here to protect Kuwait and we are willing to die for Kuwait."
Another Kuwaiti soldier said: "We are ready for Saddam Hussein. God willing, we will get rid of him."
Despite many warnings from the Kuwaiti government, there was a sense of confusion and uncertainty among ordinary people when the missiles hit Thursday.
The sirens wailed at least four times during the day. At midnight Thursday night, the sirens sounded a fifth time. Cell phones and regular telephones were so congested the systems failed and calls were blocked for hours.
But on state-radio channels, the sirens inexplicably alternated with pop music, and nobody clarified what the sirens meant. On the streets, traffic was only a little lighter than usual. Instead of going into shelters, many curious Kuwaitis went into the streets or onto balconies to see what was happening.
"Maybe the government should be giving people more information about gas masks and sirens," Mustafa, a 28-year-old Kuwait resident said. "But the problem is mostly the people — they don't care. There was information available on radio and television, but people didn't bother to listen."
