The war in Iraq can apparently turn even more deadly. In addition to the traditional combat forces, militias, and snipers, U.S. troops had to endure improvised explosive devices. Then explosively formed penetrators. More recently, insurgents have developed the ability to shoot down helicopters.
And now chlorine gas has been added to the very lethal mix.
A truck bomb that combined explosives with chlorine gas blew up in southern Baghdad on Wednesday, and officials said it may represent a new and deadly tactic by insurgents against Iraqi civilians.
It was at least the third truck bomb in a month to employ chlorine, a greenish gas also used in World War I, which burns the skin and can be fatal after only a few concentrated breaths. The bomb killed at least two people and injured 32 others, police and medical officials said.
Iraqi and American officials said the use of chlorine seems aimed at bringing a new level of fear and havoc to Iraq as a new security plan for Baghdad takes shape.
Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, an American military spokesman, said the attacks highlighted the evolving fluidity of insurgent tactics in Iraq, dominated by militant groups who often notice and mimic attacks that attract the most attention and cause the most suffering.
In this case, the attacks seem to have been “poorly executed,” the NYT reported, “burning the chemical agent rather than dispersing it, but more sophisticated weapons involving chlorine could injure hundreds and cause mass panic.” (Michael Crowley suggests terrorists may be “field-testing and refining the use of chlorine as a weapon.”)
What’s more, yesterday’s truck bomb with chlorine gas was not an isolated incident.
The AP reported:
U.S. troops raided a car bomb factory west of Baghdad with five buildings full of propane tanks and ordinary chemicals the military believes were to be used in bombs, a spokesman said Thursday, a day after insurgents blew up a truck carrying chlorine gas canisters.
Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the chlorine attack Wednesday — the second such “dirty” chemical attack in two days — signaled a change in insurgent tactics, and the military was fighting back with targeted raids.
There’s some debate about whether these chlorine gas attacks necessarily qualify as a “weapons of mass destruction,” though I’m inclined to agree with James Joyner, who noted that “at least at this level of development,” the bombs are more about psychological damage than physical.
That said, Andrew Sullivan is right to note the brutal irony.
“The chaos in Iraq now sees Sunni terrorists using explosives with chemical components. There is such hideous irony here: we invaded to stop a dictator giving chemical weapons to terrorists. But the result of the botched, under-manned occupation is that the terrorists no longer need the dictator to get them.”
Iraq didn’t have chemical weapons when we invaded, but Iraqis are using them now.