"..first I've heard about it"
Posted on 03/17/2015 7:33:28 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Iraq paused its Tikrit offensive on Monday and officials called for more air strikes against Islamic State militants, while an officer said Kurdish forces sustained two more chlorine gas attacks by insurgents.
General Aziz Waisi told journalists the insurgents used chlorine twice during a January offensive west of Mosul and once in a December attack on his military police brigade in the Sinjar mountain area. One attack near Mosul, on Jan. 23, was described by Kurdish authorities on Saturday.
Waisi said a number of military police - he did not say how many - were taken to hospital, where blood tests indicated they had inhaled chlorine gas released by the bombs.
"When it exploded, we realised it was not a normal smoke because it caused unconsciousness and vomiting," he said.
He declined to say whether samples from the two previously unreported attacks had been tested along with those from the Jan. 23 attack.
The Dutch-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said over the weekend it had not had a request from Iraq to investigate claims of chemical weapons use.
Iraq's Kurds were the victims of the deadliest chemical attack of modern times when Saddam Hussein's air force bombed the town of Halabja in 1988, killing at least 5,000 people.
TIKRIT PAUSE
In Tikrit, military officials said there was no fighting on Monday. Islamic State insurgents controlling large parts of north and west Iraq and territory in neighbouring Syria have held onto central districts of Saddam's home city and have laid explosives to hold up the advancing forces.
The offensive by Iraqi security forces and mainly Shi'ite militia, who entered Tikrit last week, is their largest yet against Islamic State, but it stalled on Friday.
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.reuters.com ...
"..first I've heard about it"
Any “pause” in Tikrit allows ISIS to retrench.
So much for the advantage of having the initiative.
Well at least they didn’t have to wear panties on their heads.
This is their SOP. Slow the Iraqi military advance and then break their resolve.
I guess Iran army is not that great
I’ve seen (accidental) chlorine gas poisoning before. Very ugly, very scary.
If we’re lucky Iran will get bogged down in Iraq for the next 10 years.
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