Scott in Florida

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/...ain/index.html

Coalition forces in Iraq find sarin gas device
Car bomb kills Iraqi Governing Council leader

Monday, May 17, 2004 Posted: 10:50 AM EDT (1450 GMT)




BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- American-led coalition forces in Iraq found
sarin gas in an artillery round that was rigged as an improvised
explosive device, U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said Monday.

The device went off before it could be disabled, Kimmitt said, causing
a "small dispersal" of the nerve agent. Two members of an explosives
ordnance team were treated for minor exposure, he said.

Kimmitt said the artillery round was of an old style that Saddam
Hussein's regime had declared it no longer had after the Persian Gulf
War. He said it was designed to explode after being fired from an
artillery piece and that its effectiveness as an improvised explosive
device was "limited."

Kimmitt did not say where the weapon was found nor did he say if it
originated in Iraq.

News of the discovery came hours after Iraqi Governing Council
President Izzedine Salim was killed by a suicide bomber in central
Baghdad, the U.S. Army said.

Salim, who was head of the Islamic Da'wah Movement in the southern
city of Basra, was a key moderate on the U.S.-appointed, 25-member
council.

The council has selected Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawar, a civil engineer
who would have assumed the rotating presidency June 1, to complete
Salim's term.

A Sunni Muslim from Mosul, al-Yawar will serve until the handover of
sovereignty June 30 to an interim Iraqi government.

"We will not retreat from the march to which he devoted all of his
life, the march toward freedom for our people, the march toward
building a democratic and a unified Iraq," al-Yawar said.

"All those criminals should be ashamed of all they have done, which
will increase the suffering of our people and extend the occupation."

Lakhdar Brahimi, U.N. special envoy to Iraq, condemned the killing,
which he said "has taken the life of one of Iraq's most loyal and
patriotic citizens, a man who made every sacrifice for his country,
who worked sincerely and selflessly so that Iraq may regain its
sovereignty and strength."

Da'wah party member Adnan Ali said Salim's death was "a very, very sad
day for the Iraqis and for Iraq."

"We have lost a great member who had donated a long time of his life
for serving Iraq and the Iraqis," Ali said.

The attack on Salim took place Monday morning near Baghdad's "Green
Zone" -- home to the American-led Coalition Provisional Authority
headquarters. The blast killed seven Iraqis and wounded five Iraqis
and two U.S. soldiers, U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said.

It damaged at least a dozen vehicles near a coalition checkpoint,
leaving a crater 5 feet wide and 3 feet deep. Salim's car was in line
at the checkpoint at the time of the attack.

Kimmitt said it appeared artillery rounds were packed into the back of
the attacker's car.

Thick black smoke billowed over central Baghdad shortly after the
blast. Fire equipment, ambulances, Iraqi police and American soldiers
raced to the scene.

A senior coalition military official said the bombing had the
hallmarks of an attack by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- an al Qaeda
associate who has been tied to numerous attacks in Iraq. The official
noted that al-Zarqawi-style attacks are typically a spectacular,
symbolic suicide bombing.

Ali said he thinks it is likely that the attack on Salim, also known
as Abdul Zahra Othman Mohammed, was not a coincidence.

"I think it is more likely that he was targeted as he has been warned
for the last couple of months," he said. "This is a very dangerous
[check]point, and they can target any [governing council] member who
leaves from the residence and enters into the Green Zone."

A Shiite Muslim, Salim was the editor of numerous newspapers and
magazines. He is the second governing council member to have been
killed in an attack.

Aquila al-Hashimi died in September from wounds suffered in an ambush
near her Baghdad home. Also a Shiite, she was the leading candidate to
become Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations.

"What this shows is that the terrorists and insurgents in Iraq are
trying to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power from the occupiers to
the Iraqi people," said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. "These
terrorists are the enemies of the Iraqi people themselves.
Scott in Florida
Scott in Florida

Miss L. Toe

"Scott in Florida" <'t> wrote in message
news:...
    > http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/...ain/index.html
    > Coalition forces in Iraq find sarin gas device
    > Car bomb kills Iraqi Governing Council leader
    > Monday, May 17, 2004 Posted: 10:50 AM EDT (1450 GMT)

    > The device went off before it could be disabled, Kimmitt said, causing
    > a "small dispersal" of the nerve agent. Two members of an explosives
    > ordnance team were treated for minor exposure, he said.

So you call two people treated for minor exposure 'mass destruction' ???

Padraig Breathnach

"Miss L. Toe" <> wrote:

    >"Scott in Florida" <'t> wrote in message
    >news:...
    >> The device went off before it could be disabled, Kimmitt said, causing
    >> a "small dispersal" of the nerve agent. Two members of an explosives
    >> ordnance team were treated for minor exposure, he said.
    >So you call two people treated for minor exposure 'mass destruction' ???
Sure it is. They were members or associates of the occupying force.

The Reids

Following up to Scott in Florida

    >http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/...ain/index.html
    >Coalition forces in Iraq find sarin gas device

singular, one artillery shell. Obviously could have destroyed
London in 45 minutes, Tony Blair vindicated.

Anonymouse

it's more like dumb arabs don't realize that sarin 155mm artillery
shells have to be FIRED to disperse the gas properly.

Miss L. Toe wrote:
    > "Scott in Florida" <'t> wrote in message
    > news:...
    >
    >>http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/...ain/index.html
    >>Coalition forces in Iraq find sarin gas device
    >>Car bomb kills Iraqi Governing Council leader
    >>Monday, May 17, 2004 Posted: 10:50 AM EDT (1450 GMT)
    >
    >
    >>The device went off before it could be disabled, Kimmitt said, causing
    >>a "small dispersal" of the nerve agent. Two members of an explosives
    >>ordnance team were treated for minor exposure, he said.
    >
    >
    > So you call two people treated for minor exposure 'mass destruction' ???
    >
    >