Iraq Not Yet Able to Equip Scuds With Poison Gas, Engineer Says

FRANKFURT, Germany —  A German newspaper quoted an Iraqi engineer Sunday as saying Baghdad is unable to fit its Scud missiles with chemical warheads.

“At the moment, Iraq cannot equip its Scud missiles with poison gas,” the engineer, who was not named, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine.

But Iraq was working feverishly to solve these technical difficulties, the engineer told the newspaper’s correspondent in the Jordanian capital, Amman.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s threat to fire Scuds with chemical warheads at Israel or Saudi Arabia was a “pure poker game,” he said.

The engineer said he had taken part in the development of the Iraqi versions of the Soviet short-range Scuds--the so-called Hussein and Abbas missiles.

The engineer said he had no direct access to the most recent secret documents on Scud development, but that he was kept posted by Iraqi military sources.

The newspaper report did not say if he was still working for the Iraqi government or why he was in Amman.