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ANDERSON COOPER: To Iraq
now -- tonight, more to report on those dirty bombs
filled with chlorine that we told you about
yesterday.
A U.S. military commander said today that a raid this
week near Fallujah uncovered car bombs and a range of
weapons, including chlorine cylinders.
Joining me now from Baghdad, CNN's Michael Ware.
Michael, good to see you.
You say that insurgents have actually been
experimenting with these chemicals since 2003, 2004.
Why a surge in these attacks now?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I don't know.
That's a good question, Anderson.
I mean, we know that the insurgents have dabbled with
different forms of chemical munitions. I mean, I have
seen some of their arsenals, where they have been
emptying mortars and refilling them with certain
substances.
Now, on one occasion, one of these substances
actually burned my throat when I breathed it in. On
another occasion, they sent me a substance as an
example of what they were doing, and I had to have a
hazmat team come to my house in Baghdad and take that
away.
One theory -- and this is a theory that might also
apply to the current strategy of attacking U.S.
helicopters -- that al Qaeda is, by and large, behind
these things. We have seen, with the sectarian divide
that's increased here in Iraq, more and more
Baathists and former members of the army driven
towards al Qaeda, secularists who don't share the
Islamic agenda, but feel they have got no other
choice.
Now, they may have taken certain skills with them to
al Qaeda. And, remember, there was a massive military
industrialization commission here in Iraq. Also bear
in mind that these are very simple bombs. Much of the
chlorine is being burned up in the actual explosion
itself. Chlorine is very hard to use as a weapon. Its
real impact is terror.
COOPER: Yeah, I mean, it gets to my next question,
which is, is the the explosions which kill more
people or the actual chemicals which kill?
I mean, we have talked in the past -- and the U.S.
military has made a point to point out how this is a
learning enemy. The insurgency learns from our
tactics. They change their tactics accordingly. How
good are they right now at chlorine attacks?
WARE: Well, this is still very, very embryonic.
I mean, we now know of at least three such attacks of
varying natures. There's two types, basically. One is
your car strapped full of explosives, that you're
heading off to attack a target, you throw some
chlorine cylinders in there with it. That's one type.
The other type that we have seen is actually a
chlorine gas tanker truck that is rigged to explode.
But, either way, there's problems with distributing
that chlorine as a cloud, as a weapon.
So, what we know is, for example, in Ramadi, in one
of the three cases we know of, 16 people were killed.
But it's unclear just how many were killed by the
explosion, how many were killed by the gas.
We do know that, in the two attacks this week -- one
in Baghdad, one just north of Baghdad -- 11 people
killed. The real number, though, is more than 200
hospitalized with respiratory illness. Those people
don't have to die to spread the fear amongst the
community.
COOPER: There is certainly that.
Michael Ware, stay safe. Michael, thanks.