Nearly two decades after the U.S. military helped force out Saddam
Hussein's army from oil-producing Kuwait, cases of cancer in the southern city
of Basra have increased dramatically with many blaming the use of depleted
uranium in the 1991 Gulf War.

NEAR BASRA, IRAQ (RECENT) REUTERS -
Nearly two decades after U.S. military firepower overwhelmed a
retreating Iraqi army, the side-effects of the controversial use of depleted
uranium in the battles are still visible across the Gulf province of
Basra.
U.S.-led forces attacked Iraq's army briefly after it had begun to
withdraw from neighbour Kuwait, which it invaded in August 1990 and briefly
annexed before military action.
Destroyed and abandoned Iraqi tanks and military vehicles are now left
scattered in the desert landscape near the Kuwaiti border.
Arab Bedouins who live in the desert region near the oil-producing
city of Basra have reportedly suffered a high increase, like many other people
in Basra, in the number of cancer cases after exposure to the radioactive
substance.
One man said a British team had assessed the ruins left behind by the
1991 Gulf War and warned locals of its lethality.
"Many people fell sick and many have cancer caused by uranium. We
are Bedouins and we do not know what uranium is but a committee from Britain
came and wrote on these tanks 'Keep away, there is uranium', we do not know
uranium, but we have noticed a spread of diseases among our animals and we
were told that the cause was the bombs that hit us," he said.
Another man living nearby criticised the state for not helping the
locals with their plight.
"We have been left alone here, no one lives near us and we have no
water. We bring water from wells in the Khararej area, we draw it from under
the earth and sometimes we get water and sometimes we don't. The government
does not give us fodder and our animals died because of the bombs," he
said.
Depleted uranium is often used as a layer on tank shells and artillery
to aid penetration of armoured vehicles and tanks due to the material's
density.
According to a recent medical study, abnormalities at birth have
increased in the past few years in connection to the uranium.
Dr. Jawad Al-Ali, a consultant clinical oncologist in Basra, says there
have been thousands of confirmed cases of cancer in the city since the Gulf
War.
He said that Allied forces delivered over 300 tonnes of depleted
uranium to southern Iraq.
"Currently, the accumulated number in Basra, gathered over all the
years, is up to 10,000 cases of cancer. Some of them have died already of
course. As for the number of patients who come to the hospital for treatment
at the present time, it stands at 1,250 to 1,500 people suffering from cancer
a month," he said.
"People who live in the desert, like Bedouins, are more vulnerable
to be infected with these particles because they are in the sand of the desert
and contaminated tanks and armoured vehicles are still in the area and they
constitute a source of contamination for these people. Therefore we, as
doctors, receive a large number of patients who came from farms and from the
desert suffering from different kinds of cancer caused by radiation," he
added.
Some studies have disputed the negative effect of depleted uranium but
many others say it is extremely hazardous.
The radioactive substance will not evaporate anytime soon as some
scientists say it has a half-life of 4.5 billion years.