Gulf War they set fire to nearly 700 oil wells and placed land mines around the wells to make extinguishing the fires more difficult. The war's ground phase was officially designated Operation Desert Saber. The first units to move into Iraq were three patrols of the British Special Air Service's B squadron, call signs Bravo One Zero, Bravo Two Zero, and Bravo Three Zero, in late January. These eight-man patrols landed behind Iraqi lines to gather intelligence on the movements of Scud mobile missile launchers, which could not be detected from the air, as they were hidden under bridges and camouflage netting
Australian contribution to the 1991 Gulf War "Darwin". On 26 January 1991, HMAS "Westralia" replaced HMAS "Success". A Navy Clearance diving team was also deployed for explosive ordnance and demolition tasks. Australian ships were in danger of mines and possible air attacks. In a number of recorded incidents, HMAS "Brisbane" encountered free floating mines, on one occasion narrowly avoiding a collision. Both HMA Ships "Brisbane" and "Sydney" encountered significant air threat warnings from Iran and Iraq throughout the initial period of the commencement of the Desert Storm Campaign. The detection of land based silkworm missiles from Iran throughout the campaign also added to the challenges for both