I decided to make sure Vialls was correct

The first place SAS troops were deployed
in the attack on Iraq, March 2003

I quoted Joe Vialls last week so I decided to double check that he was correct when he stated

On the first day of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the British and Australian SAS, in the company of unspecified American special forces, were deployed to the Western Desert of Iraq in order to ‘protect’ two strategic ‘airfields’ code-named H2 and H3, which ‘might’ be used to fire Scud missiles at Israel.

The results of the google jury were . . .

Iraq's western desert a 'special forces playground'

UK Special Air Service units, backed by Royal Marines of 45 Commando, are in the vanguard of a free-wheeling war in the Iraqi western desert - along with a squadron from Australia's Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) and US special operations forces - to neutralise any 'Scud' missile batteries threatening Israel. One officer has called western Iraq a "special forces playground".

Since storming the strategic H2 and H3 airfields near the Jordanian border on 21 March, the allied special forces task force has pushed eastwards across the desert towards Baghdad backed by air support from UK Royal Air Force GR7 Harrier fighters flying from a forward airbase in Jordan.

While UK officers will disclose very little information about UK special forces in western Iraq, the Commander of USCENTCOM, Gen Tommy Franks, has publicly praised them, saying: "They have accomplished some wonderful things out there."

Military sources say that from the second day of Operation 'Iraqi Freedom' onwards the special forces began using the two captured airfields as bases for long-range reconnaissance patrols. US Air Force Predator unmanned aerial vehicles are flying ahead of the special forces patrols, scouting for targets to be attacked.

and


Strike on Iraq: 30 Oil Wells on Fire in Southern Iraq
CNN AMERICAN MORNING WITH PAULA ZAHN
Aired March 21, 2003 - 09:30 ET

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. Well, that had been one of the goals for U.S. military forces. Of course, a key port for the Iraqi oil industry. Something the U.S. very much wanted to get a hold of. Southern Iraq, the city of Basra, this whole area.

But there were other important developments overnight at the other end of the country. In far western Iraq, U.S. Special Forces are now said to be in control of two key airfields known as H2 and H3, you see here on the map.

Now, these are very strategic locations, of course, because they are so close to Israel just on the other side of Jordan. Those airfields have been of concern for some time because it was believed that the regime of President Saddam Hussein might have been hiding scud missiles, the Scud-B missile, and launchers at that airfield. It had always been a goal of U.S. military forces to take those airfields in the opening hours of the campaign to ensure that there could be no scud activity and that Israel would not be threatened.

No mention there of the words "pumping", "station" or "pipline", I see.