At least 350 Iraqi civilians needed hospital treatment after attackers detonated three trucks filled with toxic chlorine gas, killing two policemen, the US military said Saturday.
Friday's gas attack was the seventh this year in which attackers have used chemical gas bombs on civilians and security forces. The attacks were carried out between 4.11 pm (1311 GMT) and 7.13 pm on Friday, two of them just south of the town of Fallujah and one northeast of the nearby city of Ramadi. "Approximately 350 Iraqi civilians and six coalition force members were treated for chlorine gas exposure," said Lieutenant Roger Hollenbeck of the US-led Multinational Division West, based in Ramadi.
Iraqi state television reported that at least six people died in the explosions, but the US military could initially only confirm the deaths of two Iraqi policemen in the second explosion.
In each attack a suicide bomber detonated a vehicle packed with explosives and gas canisters near police and civilian targets.
On Saturday, attackers killed four more Iraqis in blasts. A policeman from a special task force was killed and four injured, including three policemen, when a roadside bomb went off in Hilla, south of Baghdad, police said, according to AFP. A similar blast targeting another police patrol in the main northern city of Mosul killed one policeman and wounded another, police said.
