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Length: 4:18
WOLF BLITZER: Let's move on to other news we're
following.
Fresh evidence today of a frightening new insurgent
weapon, a chlorine bomb. The U.S. military says a
raid near Falluja uncovered a car bomb factory
complete with deadly chemicals. A car bomb loaded
with chlorine canisters blew up in Baghdad yesterday,
killing six people and unleashing a poison cloud,
which sent dozens of coughing, choking people to the
hospital.
Tuesday, a chlorine tanker truck rigged with
explosives blew up near Taji, killing at least six
people and sickening scores more.
Last month in Ramadi, a suicide bomber blew up a dump
truck loaded with a chlorine tank.
The U.S. military says that with these dirty chemical
bombs, insurgents are changing their tactics, trying
to raise the terror level among the Iraqi people.
So have the insurgents found a new way to strike fear
and spread death?
And joining us now in Baghdad, our correspondent,
Michael Ware. Michael, what's going on with these
chlorine gas bombings, these trucks filled with this
poison gas exploding, killing lots of people in the
Baghdad area?
Is this a new technique?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we're
seeing, Wolf, is two kinds of attack here. Let's get
started with that.
One is your ordinary car bomb packed with explosives,
but they're putting in some chlorine gas tanks that
will go off with the detonation.
The second kind of attack, which is of the kind that
we saw a couple of days ago, is actually a chlorine
gas cylinder tanker rigged with explosives that was
detonated.
These are two of three we've seen in recent weeks. We
saw a car bomb version in Ramadi, as well.
Now, in these attacks -- in Ramadi 16 people were
killed, in Baghdad, here, there were six killed. and
in Taji, I believe it was five; however, it's not
known how many people died from the explosions
themselves and how many died from the effects of the
chlorine.
What we do know, that in these two attacks in Baghdad
and Taji, more than 200 people were hospitalized with
respiratory illness.
What we need to be aware of is that chlorine is a
very difficult thing to use as a weapon. Indeed, if
you don't get it just right, a lot of it just burns
off harmlessly in the explosion and becomes
non-toxic.
You need to concentrate this stuff. But I can tell
you this, Wolf, the insurgents have been
experimenting with these things since 2003, 2004. I
was with them when they were trying to fill mortars
with various types of chemicals, mainly blister
agents left over from Saddam's regime.
Indeed, an example that was sent to me at one point,
I had to have removed from my house by an American
military HAZMAT team.
So these guys have been dabbling with these things.
There just seems to be a surge in it in the past
three or four weeks.
BLITZER: And one of the most dangerous parts of it,
the plume, this cloud that develops. You don't know
which direction it's going to move and you don't
know, if you're in the vicinity of one of these
explosions, which way to run.
WARE: Well, from what we've been told by the experts,
is that essentially a chlorine gas cloud is
invisible. So you can't see it anyway. But you need
it in a high concentration, certainly for it to be
lethal.
However, it doesn't have to be in that kind of a
concentration to cause respiratory problems or other
kinds of irritations.
So it may not kill, but as we all well know with
weapons of this sort, their true power is the ability
to instill terror. And let's have a look at it, Wolf.
Let's be frank. You and I are now talking about these
three attacks in Iraq. The people of Iraq are now
talking about it.
Ignorance -- people unaware of the true impact or
limitations of these weapons, are talking about this
and the fear spreads. That's the real power, not the
damage the bomb itself causes.
BLITZER: A real weapon of terror.
Michael, thanks very much.