Iraqi, U.S. forces attacked with chlorine bombs

15 suffer chlorine poisoning; off-duty Iraqi police slay dozens of Sunnis

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 5:32 p.m. ET March 28, 2007
UpdateTimeStamp('633107143768770000');

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Insurgents with two chlorine truck bombs attacked a local government building in Fallujah in western Iraq on Wednesday, the latest in a string of attacks using the poisonous gas, the U.S. military said.

Fifteen Iraqi and U.S. soldiers were wounded in the blasts and many more suffered chlorine poisoning, the statement said.

“Numerous Iraqi soldiers and policemen are being treated for symptoms such as labored breathing, nausea, skin irritation and vomiting that are synonymous with chlorine inhalation,” a U.S. statement said.

It said no Iraqi or U.S. forces were killed in what it called a “complex attack” using mortars and small arms as well as the truck bombs.

Chlorine gas was widely used in World War I but its use in insurgent attacks in Iraq has particular resonance there. Saddam Hussein attacked Kurdish areas with chemical weapons in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war. >>>cont