Chemical weapons used today by Al-Qaeda in Iraq
DUBAI (AFX) - An Al-Qaeda linked Sunni group in Iraq said it used chemical weapons to attack targets in Baghdad today, according to their statement released on an Islamist website. Jaish al-Taefa al-Mansura (Army of the Victorious Community) said its fighters fired shells filled with chemical agents at the interior ministry, foreign ministry, the 'green zone' and Baghdad's security academy. In Baghdad, the interior ministry said five rounds of mortar fire exploded, including two in the heavily fortified green zone which houses the Iraqi government as well as the US and British embassies. Two struck the heavily protected 'green zone' which is home to the government and to the US and British embassies, but it was not immediately known if there were casualties. Two hit a vacant lot near traffic department offices and one a street, causing no casualties. But the Jaish group, in the statement whose authenticity could not be confirmed, said ambulances were used to evacuate dead and wounded from the interior ministry. The same group warned Sunday that it would use chemical weapons against 'occupation' and Iraqi forces unless they halted their offensive against rebels in the northern town of Tal Afar....
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posted by _H_ at 6:02 pm
7 Comments:
you'll know soon enough. If it is confirmed, you can bet the US media will play it up (terror factor is good here, so it will run), and US troops will be in their "NBC" gear soon
a few newspapers are picking up the story now ..
i am not so sure the US Media will play this up , it is a complicated situation , i am not so sure that Bush n co would want to play on this whilst the US people are arguing about being in Iraq
if true , the group are doing so in specific response to a specific US attack , the propaganda value for both sides is very difficult to assess
time will tell , but i am still unsure how the whitehouse would want to play this story (if it turns out to be confirmed)
I have no idea hype , thats the problem with the term "chemical weapon" it could be anything from Mace to mustard gas ..
I doubt it is anything major but with media supression as it is in Iraq , who knows
, a few sites are picking this up , but i am taking it as single sourced until one of the main news agencies pick it up (retuers/ap etc)
but it could be as simple as pepper spray yes LOL
this one never took off. Might have been just bragging by the group
not so sure G , if it did happen it is very small scale , but i really dont think it is in the wests benefit to advertise this if true ,
time will tell yes , but i don't think now is the time we would be told ..
still as you say it may not have happened , and the only facts i can give you is that this information was reported on there web site and that the buildings they discuss were actually acttacked with rockets
it is only themselves (at this point) claiming that anything was inside the rockets
so i think it is unlikely but i am not yet ruling out the possibility of any truth in this ...
of course it is going to be exaggerated on both sides. i say the most likely scenario is they found 2 very old shells with chemicals that are so old they don't work very well, and then hit the parking lot and an empty building, and then claim massive casualties. (of which there were none)
for all the rhetoric being thrown around, the reality is, the problem is 'there' and not 'here'. since 9-11 there has not been a single casualty 'here'. if al-queda were a truly competent (and global) threat, why are thier attacks limited to regional small arms fire?
so they (unconfirmed) managed to get their hands on an obviously limited supply of chemicals. what are the results? negligable, nearly to the point of ignorable.
Bottom line, these guys can definitely pose a threat to unprotected civilian populations, but against any competent military, they are about as scary as a chihuahua is to a gorilla.
thanks for your comments anonymous
my view is that al-qaeda was a threat when they were in the bases of afghanistan , that threat was removed
what we see now are copy cat groups that have no way of creating the damage that Osama amd co did ,
even zarqawi has spent more of his terrorist career apposed to al-qaeda then he has spent claiming he actually is al-qaeda
what we have , is people encouraged by the media to call all the bombs here and there "al-qaeda" and it makes them seem like this big world nasty threat
infact ,i do not think osama has been able to operate in any note worthy fashion for many years
what we in the west have done is give "al-qaeda" the best possible recruiting strategy by our clumsy efforts in the muslim world
where they were recruiting the odd extremists now the extreme muslims are flocking to them
to me its another example of a badly thought out response to the world today
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