WASHINGTON — U.S. troops in Iraq uncovered a "car bomb factory" near Fallouja this week that contained multiple canisters of chlorine, a potentially lethal gas that has been used in three insurgent attacks over the last month, a top U.S. official in Baghdad told reporters Thursday.
Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the Army commander responsible for day-to-day military operations in Iraq, said the Tuesday night raid outside the city west of Baghdad netted a wide array of munitions and three vehicles that were apparently being readied as car bombs at the compound, in addition to the chlorine cylinders.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday March 01, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 40 words Type of Material: Correction
Chlorine: An article in Friday's Section A about attempts by Iraqi insurgents to use chlorine in bombings said Germany used the chemical as a weapon during World Wars I and II. Germany did not use chlorine in World War II.
The discovery of yet more chlorine after bombings Tuesday and Wednesday in which the chemical was used seemed to indicate a stepped-up effort by insurgents to use such choking agents to cause even more deaths and spread fear among Iraqi civilians.
At least 21 Iraqis and a U.S. soldier were killed or found dead around the country Thursday amid an aggressive security crackdown in the capital and rainy weather hampering travel across the region.
Odierno noted that insurgents had for several months been trying to use various other chemicals to make car bombs more deadly, and characterized the use of chlorine as part of these efforts.
Such bombs can spread fear, but Odierno noted that deaths caused by the chemical have been limited. The most recent attack, on Wednesday, killed two people and sickened 25.
"Over the last year or so ... we have found attempts of them to try to use all different types of chemical mixtures in order to try to make [car bombs] more lethal, and this is just another way to do it," Odierno said in a briefing from Baghdad for reporters at the Pentagon.
Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said in an interview on CNN that the cache of weapons found Tuesday night near the town of Karma, northeast of Fallouja, included "all kinds of ordinary chemicals" besides chlorine, a possible indication that insurgents have stepped up their efforts to use toxic substances in their attacks.
Although Odierno would not say who the U.S. believed was behind the chlorine bombs, Karma is in Sunni Arab-dominated Al Anbar province, a stronghold of homegrown Sunni insurgents and foreign fighters linked to the group Al Qaeda in Iraq.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the use of chlorine appeared to be part of an effort by insurgents to pull off "spectacular events" that would kill civilians, and she called employment of the gas "disturbing and concerning."
