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Chlorine Blasts Kill 8; 6 Troops Also Die in Iraq
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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.
Also Saturday, a bomb killed four U.S. soldiers and wounded one as they patrolled an area in western Baghdad, the military said. Another soldier was shot and wounded immediately after the blast.
A U.S. soldier was fatally shot during operations in Baqubah, north of Baghdad, the military said. And another soldier was killed and three were wounded Friday when a bomb exploded as they patrolled south of Baghdad, the military said Saturday.
The U.S. military said it detained 18 suspected militants, including possible members of al-Qaeda in Iraq, in raids Saturday in Fallujah and Balad, north of Baghdad.
Roadside bombs killed at least five people and wounded at least 17 across Iraq on Saturday, said Col. Sami Hassan of the Interior Ministry. At least five officers were killed and seven others wounded in four bombings in Baghdad, the northern town of Mosul and Diyala province.
Another policeman was killed when a suicide car bomb detonated at a checkpoint outside the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad; the blast also killed one civilian and wounded another, a national police spokesman said.
No violence was reported in Baghdad's sprawling Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, where thousands protested Friday at the urging of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who called on them to "resist" the U.S. presence in Iraq.
While Sadr continues to cooperate warily with the Baghdad security plan, Amar al-Hakim -- the son of one of Iraq's most powerful Shiite clerics and top Sadr rival -- said at a Najaf rally Saturday that the U.S. military infringes on Iraq's sovereignty, the Reuters news agency reported. Hakim's father, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, heads the dominant political party in Iraq's parliament and met with President Bush in Washington in December.
Special correspondents Waleed Saffar and Salih Dehema in Baghdad and other Washington Post staff in Iraq contributed to this report.
