US dropped nuclear bomb near Basra in 1991, claims veteran

An American veteran of the first Gulf War in Iraq claims that the United States dropped a five-kilotonne nuclear bomb in 1991 in a deserted area outside the southern city of Basra on the Iranian border.

The claim by US war veteran Jim Brown was made during an interview included in a 30-minute current affairs report to be broadcast by Italian state news channel RaiNews24 on Thursday.

Brown told the Italian news channel that the bombing took place on the last day of the war in Iraq on 27 February 1991.

RaiNews24 claims to have conducted its own inquiry and found that a seismic event took place on that day equal to a five-kilotonne blast.

The network cited the online archives of the International Seismological Center, a non-profit UK-based organisation, as confirmation of its research.

The Italian journalist in charge of the inquiry Maurizio Torrealta told Adnkronos International (AKI) that there is no definitive proof of the nuclear blast and that it should not be taken as a fact.

Instead he asked the international community to further investigate the claims by Brown.

"We are asking journalists and the international community for help, in order to clarify this," said Torrealta.

However, in the documentary, which was shown to the media on Wednesday, Torrealta said that one of the possible reasons that the US may have dropped the bomb, was in retribution for the launch of Scud missiles on the US Dhahran military base in Saudi Arabia on 25 February.

Twenty-eight American soldiers died in the attack. More

Flashback: 2007
U.S. VETERAN REVEALS ATOMIC BOMBS DROPPED ON AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ