Iraq Reported Dealing for Iran Scud Launchers

Iraq wants to buy about 100 mobile Scud missile launchers from Iran, an intelligence official says.

The request, along with the flight of 90 Iraqi planes to Iran, has military officials perplexed.

U.S. officials don’t know if Iran is willing to sell the launchers, which it bought from North Korea in the 1980s, “but there are suspicions,” the source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday.

Asked about the report, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Kamal Kharrazi, said today that speculation about Scud launcher sales to Iraq was “baseless.” He did not elaborate.

Iran bought the launchers and SS-1 missiles in response to Iraqi missile attacks on Iranian cities during their eight-year war. At the time, the United States and its allies had imposed an arms embargo on Iran and were helping Iraq.

But the missiles’ range--about 160 miles--proved too short to be effective against major Iraqi cities and most of them were not used, the intelligence source said.

Iraq was using more advanced Soviet-made missiles, which it modified to more than triple their range. Not only did they strike terror in Iranian cities during the war, but 53 of them also reached Israel and Saudi Arabia in the last 10 days.

Allied bombers are hunting the mobile Iraqi launchers and destroying them, but the units are proving easy to hide.

Israeli officials say Iraq is still believed to have about 15 launchers left, and many more missiles than that.