Taliban's Poison Gas Attacks

 Last week we saw the Taliban's continued attacks against young girls' education in Afghanistan with poison gas. It's a particularly vile thing to do, but it's educational to note the amateur hour approach that they used.

 A total of 46 students and nine teachers were treated in hospital after what Mohammad Asif Nang, an official at the education ministry, described as "an apparent poisoning" attack by "the enemies of women's education".

According to staff, parents and onlookers, girls began fainting in the school's main classroom block at about 10.30 this morning, during the first of three daily shifts designed to triple the number of girls at the school.

Some victims had to be carried out while others stumbled to the school gates, where about 18 slumped to the ground unconscious, said Abdul Haq, a 15-year-old boy who witnessed the incident.
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 Western medical experts have taken blood samples from alleged victims while investigating previous incidents but have been unable to find clear evidence of poisoning. They have also questioned how such an apparently powerful gas could be spread with such apparent ease round large school buildings.

This hasn't been the first gas attack on a school, and it's unclear what kind of non-persistent industrial chemical was pumped into the schools. But it's a far cry from the feared terrorist use of chemical warfare agents that most DHS scenarios warn about.

UPDATE: George Smith suggests that the Taliban used fumigants. Good suggestion as any.

Comments

[Ben]

So there were no deaths, and no chemical or biological evidence of a poison? It sounds a lot like this is mass psychogenic illness:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Psychogenic_Illness#In_schools

[Leper]

Making the big (and likely incorrect) assumption that one can reliably and easily trigger a mass psychogenic illness, then you can safely mimic small-scale chemical or biological attacks. All without the hassle of obtaining and handling chem/bio agents. At the very least it makes an interesting movie threat/conspiracy theory.

[Gwyn]

Previous attacks have used malathion, apparently confimed by Nato forces blood tests, which is commercially available as a pesticide. Previous victims noticed a sweet smell - which the commercial version has - yet this one apparently smelled of garbage, which might mean they have changed agent/brand...