Deadly toxic bomb hits Iraqi town
Pastor Dale Morgan
Deadly toxic bomb hits Iraqi town*
POSTED: 1051 GMT (1851 HKT), February 20, 2007
Story Highlights
• NEW: Six dead, scores poisoned in toxic blast in Iraqi town of Taji
• 13 people killed in four newly reported Iraq attacks, police say
• Outpost ambush kills two U.S. troops, eight Iraqi police, officials say
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A tanker carrying chlorine gas exploded Tuesday
morning outside a restaurant in the Iraqi town of Taji, killing at least
six people, an Interior Ministry official said. At least 105 other
people were either injured by the blast or poisoned by the fumes.
The official said a bomb on board the tanker caused the explosion.
Baghdad Security plan spokesman Gen. Qassim Atta had different casualty
figures, telling state-run al-Iraqiya TV that five people died in the
blast and 148 were poisoned by the gas.
Taji is located about 12 miles (20 km) north of Baghdad.
In southwestern Baghdad, a car bomb exploded outside a fuel station in
the Sadiya district, killing six people and wounding 11 more, police said.
Also in southern Baghdad, Iraqi police said a second car bomb exploded
near a market in the Rashid district, leaving five dead and seven wounded.
In Tikrit, a would-be suicide bomber wearing an explosives vest was shot
and killed by authorities outside an Iraqi army recruitment center,
police said.
Tikrit is about 80 miles north of the Iraqi capital.
In other developments, Iraqi police reported finding 20 bodies across
Baghdad on Monday.
Among these, an attack by three suicide car bombers near a U.S.-Iraqi
outpost killed two American soldiers and eight Iraqi police officers,
Iraqi officials told CNN.
The U.S. military confirmed the American deaths and said 17 U.S. troops
were wounded in the "coordinated attack" north of Baghdad, but it did
not reveal the strike's exact location.
Iraqi officials said the insurgents targeted Iraqi police headquarters
in Tarmiya -- about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Baghdad -- which
also houses U.S. troops.
After a series of three suicide car bombings, 50 gunmen opened fire on
the outpost, the Iraqi officials said.
Insurgents fired small arms and threw grenades after an initial car
bombing, a U.S. military official said.
The site, which is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Baghdad, has
been secured and the incident is under investigation, according to the
U.S. military.
The latest deaths bring to 3,140 the number of U.S. military personnel,
including seven Department of Defense civilians, killed in the Iraq war.
The ambush comes as about 112,000 U.S. and Iraqi forces continue a
Baghdad security crackdown dubbed "Fardh Al-Qanoon," or "Enforcing the
Law." (Watch how Iraq is doing under new crackdown Video)
Other developments
# Mortars slammed into a residential area in southern Baghdad's Dora
district Monday afternoon, killing 11 people and wounding 14 others,
Iraqi police said.
# A bomb exploded inside a minibus in central Baghdad, killing two
people and wounding eight others, police said.
# According to police, the attack took place in the Karrada district
around 8:30 a.m. (12:30 a.m. ET)
# Six people were killed and 40 others were wounded when a pair of
roadside bombs exploded near an Iraqi police patrol in the Zafaraniya
district of southeastern Baghdad. Three Iraqi police were among the
dead, and 10 were among the wounded, police said.
# In Mahmoudiya, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Baghdad, a car
bomb exploded along a street, killing one person and wounding four more,
police said.
# Coalition forces detained seven suspected terrorists and destroyed a
vehicle rigged with explosives during a raid east of Tikrit on Monday
morning, a U.S. military statement said.
# North of Baghdad in Baiji, a roadside bomb attack on a convoy of Iraqi
government ministers and other officials left three Iraqi police dead
and six wounded, an official with Tikrit police said. None of the
officials were injured in the attack. Among the government officials in
the convoy were the ministers of oil and electricity, as well as the
governor of Salaheddin and the mayor of Baiji, the police official said.
# An attack on an Iraqi army officer's home in Dhuluiya, about 50 miles
north of Baghdad, killed five people, including an Iraqi soldier, and
wounded 10, six of them Iraqi soldiers, the Tikrit police official said.
The army officer was not hurt in the attack.
CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this story.