Tue 23 Nov 2004

Soldiers 'exposed to sarin' in Gulf war

IAN JOHNSTON

SOLDIERS in the Royal Scots regiment were exposed to a massive dust cloud contaminated with the deadly nerve agent sarin during the first Gulf war, a veterans group claimed yesterday.

The National Gulf Veterans and Families Association (NGVFA) said the cloud - caused when US troops blew up weapons dumps without realising some munitions contained sarin - poisoned soldiers. The group dismissed Ministry of Defence claims that the sarin was at too low a concentration to cause brain or nerve damage.

The NGVFA accused the MoD of covering up the harmful effects. It says shortly before the dumps were destroyed in March 1991, British troops had been ordered to switch off chemical alarms and pack up their protective suits.

An initial study by the US General Accountability Office found that 9,000 British troops were caught in the sarin cloud, but the GAO now believes the plume was larger than first thought.

The NGVFA claimed that 12,000 British service personnel, including the Royal Scots, may have been affected and that the sarin cloud was one of the reasons behind Gulf War Syndrome.

Shaun Rusling, vice- chairman of the NGVFA and a former paratrooper, said: "British troops had no protection and had no way of knowing they were being exposed to a low-level fallout from sarin gas in these pits."

A spokesman for the MoD said the latest report by the US authorities was still being considered and a response would be made later this year. He said previous studies had concluded that "the potential levels of chemical agent present would have been too low to exert any detectable biological effect on service personnel".