Syria's mobile missiles that sow terror
2012-12-13 21:34
Washington -The mobile, medium-range Scud missile, which
US officials say Syria's embattled regime has fired on rebels, is a fearful,
indiscriminate weapon with a bloody history in the region.
The Soviet-designed missiles can carry a warhead of up to
1 000kg but, owing to their relative inaccuracy, have more often been used
to sow terror in cities than to scatter armies in the field.
The missiles can be equipped with conventional, chemical
or nuclear warheads and their arrival on the battlefield will increase fears
that Bashar Assad's increasingly beleaguered regime could turn to desperate measures.
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein famously lobbed dozens of
the relatively unsophisticated Scuds at Israel and Saudi Arabia during the
1990-91 Gulf War as US-led troops expelled his forces from Kuwait, but he
caused few casualties.
Allied aircraft - along with US and British special
forces on the ground - struggled to take out Saddam's mobile Scuds, which were
hidden in gullies and culverts and quickly shifted out of sight after night
launches.
Past wars
The Scud missile was originally developed by the Soviet
Union in the 1950s with help from captured German scientists, and was based on
the Nazi V-2 rocket fired on London during World War II, according to Jane's defence Review.
Other countries, including North Korea, Egypt, Iran, Iraq
and Syria are believed to have developed their own versions of the ballistic
missile - which can be transported by and fired from trucks - after the end of
the Cold War.
The rockets were first used in combat during the 1973
Arab-Israeli war, and during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s both sides rained
Scud missiles down on civilian targets in the so-called "War of the
Cities".
Missile types
Smaller numbers were used during wars in Afghanistan,
Yemen and Chechnya in the 1990s, and Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi's forces
fired at least two Scud missiles last year during the Nato-backed rebellion
that overthrew him.
Scud-type missiles are usually about 11m long and have a
range of roughly 300km, though some versions can strike beyond 500km.
However, they lack the accuracy of so-called smart bombs.
North Korea is believed to have developed more modern
versions of the Soviet Scud missile and to have exported hundreds of the
so-called Scud-C and Scud-D rockets to the Middle East and Africa.
Syria is believed to possess the so-called Scud-D or
Hwasong-7, the latest North Korean model, which carries a smaller payload of
500kg but can travel farther, up to 800km, according to Jane's.
The Scuds would be of little use troops battling rebels
in the streets of major cities like Damascus or Aleppo, but could be used to
target military bases seized by rebels or to sow panic in towns or neighbourhoods.
