Iraq Official Says U.S. Burned Oil Wells In ‘91

Iraq’s foreign minister insists that the U.S.-led coalition - and not retreating Iraqis - set fire to more than 700 oil wells in the last days of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

The burning wells that darkened the skies over Kuwait took months to put out, setting back Kuwait’s plan to rebuild its oil industry.

But Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said U.S.-led forces bombed the wells during the war, possibly to prevent the Iraqi army from using them.

“The fact that allied forces bombed the wells is becoming more concrete day after day,” al-Sahaf said in a statement published Friday in Iraqi newspapers. He did not say what evidence Iraq has of allied involvement.