^BC-Iraq-Fields of Ammo,0664<
^U.S. soldiers and mine group employ Iraqis in effort to stop ammo looting<
^AP Photos XWS103,104,106,107<
^By JAMIE TARABAY=
^Associated Press Writer=
¶   AL HATR, Iraq (AP) _ At Jaguar South, the jagged shards of exploded shell cartridges shimmer like gold in the morning sun _ and that's pretty much what they are, says Capt. Mike Kimball.
¶   Iraqis have been blowing up the tank and shell rounds stored in Iraqi army warehouses here and scavenging the bits of brass to sell in northern Iraq.
¶   "That's $2 right there, lying on the ground," Kimball says, pointing to two brass cartridges. More than 300 looters have been arrested.
¶   But now the U.S. Army and a British mine-clearing group are teaming up to turn robbers into workers, paying residents to clean _ instead of loot _ the fields of brass.
¶   Kimball, of the 101st Airborne Division, is responsible for Jaguar North and Jaguar South, two Iraqi army ammunition depots stretching over a total of 25 square miles near the village of Al Hatr, 180 miles north of Baghdad.
¶   Just after midnight on June 12, looters set off a massive mound of ammunition, and the fireworks could be seen for miles.
¶   Residents swarmed in with trucks to collect the coveted loot, climbing over the damaged perimeter fences and making off with the brass to sell in northern Iraq, Turkey and Iran.
¶   "You see trucks going up through to Turkey, there's obviously a thriving market," said Ian Rimmel of the Mines Advisory Group.
¶   Kimball says most of the looters were interested only in the casings _ not the ammunition itself. Even so, it's a dangerous undertaking. At least 30 people have been killed in explosions in the depots, he said.
¶   "At least once a day we catch someone trying to break in," said Kimball, 29, of Enid, Okla. "Sometimes we'll have families coming in saying, `Our brother came here last night. We haven't seen him. Have you seen him?'"
¶   The new program by the Army and the Mines Advisory Group will put $6,000 a month into the local economy. In addition to providing much-needed employment and clearing the dangerous fields, it will let Kimball's unit of 70 men focus on guarding other troublespots.
¶   Rimmel says his organization has identified 432 locations in the two fields with ammunition. They include mud-roofed bunkers, cement-block buildings and simple stacks of crates.
¶   Lone rocket-propelled grenades lie among scrub and spent shells sit within deep cracks in the barren earth. Propellant _ which works like gunpowder _ is scattered everywhere, baking in the sun, some in long stick shapes, others like little pellets of gray powder.
¶   The Mines Advisory Group began working in Iraq in 1991, in northern Iraq until the war ended and it could move in to the south. It has about 40 teams working in Iraq now.
¶   Rimmel, of Worchestershire, England, brought his Kurdish staff _ unmistakable in their baggy pants and closed-toe shoes _ to Al Hatr to help supervise local, Arab, workers.
¶   "There are some points of tension there," he said. "A lot of the Arabs don't want to work for the Kurds, but at least 25 Arabs have signed up."
¶   Rimmel, who has worked in Bosnia, Kosovo, Lebanon and the West Bank, says some of the ammunition contains white phosphorus, which could be deadly in the searing Iraqi summer.
¶   "It begins to leak, and the drier it is, the better it will burn," he says. Rimmel and his team have to cover the field inch by inch to leave no propellant or round behind. It will take months, he says. "We're dealing with ammunition. We can only work the team at a safe speed."
¶   Kimball hopes the new scheme will eventually convince Iraqis to stop trying to infiltrate the fields and risk their lives for the cartridges.
¶   But he concedes that may be an impossible dream.
¶   "One ton of brass is $590," he said.
¶   ___
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