I learned from ABC News on Saturday that there were a few more chlorine attacks in Iraq.
Three suicide bombers driving trucks rigged with tanks of toxic chlorine gas struck targets in heavily Sunni Anbar province including the office of a Sunni tribal leader opposed to al-Qaida. The attacks killed at least two people and sickened 350 Iraqi civilians and six U.S. troops, the U.S. military said Saturday.
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The violence started about 4:11 p.m. Friday when a driver detonated explosives in a pickup truck carrying chlorine at a checkpoint northeast of the provincial capital of Ramadi, wounding one U.S. service member and one Iraqi civilian, the military said in a statement.Two hours later a dump truck exploded in Amiriyah, south of Fallujah, killing two policemen and leaving as many as 100 residents with symptoms of chlorine exposure ranging from minor skin and lung irritations to vomiting, the military said. Iraqi authorities said at least six people were killed and dozens wounded when the truck blew up in a line of cars waiting at a checkpoint. The U.S. did not confirm the Iraqi report.
Ahmed Kuhdier, a 32-year-old taxi driver, said the blast sent up a plume of white smoke that turned black and blue.
"Minutes later, we started to smell nasty smells. I saw people coming form the explosion site and they were coughing and having trouble breathing," he said.
Another suicide bomber detonated a dump truck containing a 200-gallon chlorine tank rigged with explosives at 7:13 p.m. three miles south of Fallujah in the Albu Issa tribal region, the military said. U.S. forces found about 250 local civilians, including seven children, suffering from symptoms related to chlorine exposure, according to the statement. Police said the bomb was targeting the reception center of a tribal sheik who has denounced al-Qaida.
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Chlorine, which irritates the respiratory system, eyes and skin at low exposure and can cause death in heavier concentrations, is easily accessible. It is used for water purification plants, bleaches and disinfectants.The primary effect of the chlorine attacks has been to spread panic. Although chlorine gas can be fatal, the heat from the explosions can render the gas nontoxic. Victims in the recent chlorine blasts died from the explosions, and not the effects of the gas.
Amazing how they leave this fact to the latter part of the discussion. What blew my mind was the exaggeration of these incidents - the ABC journalist on Saturday compared the Iraqi's mild exposure to chlorine to Saddam's use of chemical warfare agents in Halabjah. Yes, the Iraqis are upset about these three incidents which irritated a few hundred civilians' respiratory systems, because it reminds them of the systematic use of military warfare agents that killed 5000 people and injured 6-7000 others.
The Washington Post had the same failing... deep inside the coverage of the three chlorine bombs, the reporter decides to mention that they really didn't do that much.
Chlorine causes wheezing, coughing and skin irritation and can be fatal in heavy concentrations. While chlorine bombs here have done little damage compared with traditional bombs, which often kill scores of people at once, the use of chemicals carries sinister symbolism in Iraq, where President Saddam Hussein's forces killed rebellious Kurds and others with poisonous gas.
I recognize that I'm not going to convince some of you that insurgent use of a small amount of industrial chlorine gas isn't the same as as a Scud missile filled with chemical warfare agent. I only hope that you can see that the insurgent use of chlorine isn't effective as a "weapon of mass destruction" as nerve and mustard agent use at Halabjah was. I'm not sure that this even qualifies as a weapon of mass effect. It's just a head game, and the sooner that the media stop exaggerating the effects, the better.
UPDATE: George Smith does the math and spells it out.
Chlorine attacks on this scale are uninteresting and insignificant from a military standpoint. In WWI, gas was employed in high volume in hopes that it would crack trench fortifications. Historically, it wasn't particularly successful in this endeavor. Nothing was on the western front.
In Iraq, it's obvious employment is as a terror weapon. But one must wonder at the savvy and long view of those employing it. Chlorine used in this way only serves to harden civilians against the employers of it. It must be seen as even more indiscriminate and pointlessly cruel than the standard daily bombings.
What he said. Read the post.
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