Israel Refutes Iraqi Claim Scuds Fired at Dimona Plant

The Israel Defense Force has so far failed to find evidence of Scud missiles the Iraqi military authorities claimed to have fired at Israel’s nuclear facility at Dimona in the Negev.

Army units were reported Monday to still be searching for the impact point or debris where Jewish and Bedouin eyewitnesses reported seeing a bright flash in the sky followed by a loud roar Saturday night.

Baghdad claimed three advanced-type Scud missiles were fired at Dimona and a fourth at Haifa port. But the Israelis say they know nothing of a missile fired toward Haifa, either.

Two missiles were reported earlier to have hit Israel’s southern region Saturday, causing neither injuries nor damage. The IDF, for security reasons, does not say where the missiles landed.

Both reportedly carried conventional warheads. There was no official report of Patriot anti-missile batteries being fired to intercept them.

The all-clear sounded within minutes, except in the southern region, which civil defense authorities designate Zone 6. Residents there were ordered to stay in their gas-proof rooms with their gas masks on for additional time.

Zone 6 extends from Ashkelon on the Mediterranean coast to Ein Gedi on the Dead Sea and includes all of the Negev south to Eilat. It had been considered a safe haven from missile attacks by many Tel Aviv area residents, who left the city after the first Scuds struck on Jan. 18.

Senior security officials told the Cabinet at its meeting Sunday that while Iraq’s ability to manufacture chemical weapons may have been severely impaired by allied bombings, the danger of a chemical attack on Israel is not over.

It may, in fact, have increased.

Israeli official say they have no reason to change their assessment that the closer Saddam Hussein comes to defeat, the greater his incentive to “settle accounts” with Israel.