U.S. CENTCOM Military News Briefing

Lt. Colonel Scott, a fighter pilot on the U.S. CENTCOM staff, briefed reporters on U.S. military progress in the Persian Gulf. Lt. Col. Scott said the coalition forces have destroyed Iraq’s ability to produce nuclear weapons, and have destroyed most of Iraq’s ability to produce chemical and biological weapons, which continues to be an objective of the military campaign against Iraq. The focus of the military campaign had changed from that of strategic interdiction to battlefield preparation. SCUD missiles continued to be fired by Iraq into Israel and Saudi Arabia. Including the nine missiles fired by Iraq the previous evening, the total number of SCUDs launched by Iraq was 44. All nine SCUDs were intercepted by coalition forces' Patriot missiles, but one SCUD’s warhead survived the Patriot intercept intact to land and explode in Riyadh. Lt. Col. Scott announced the firing of the first Tomahawk missile in combat on Saturday, January 19. close