Religion of Peace™
Two children die as Iraqi poison plot recalls Saddam's assassination method of choiceIraqi authorities are investigating a case of poisoning at a Baghdad sports club popular with the army in which two children have died and nine people have been taken to hospital. All were reported to have eaten cakes laced with thallium, the toxin that was often used by Saddam's secret police to kill political opponents.
- Cakes laced with thallium left at popular sports club
- Britain sends antidote to Basra base and hospitals
Security officials said it was the first known incident of deliberate thallium poisoning since the fall of the regime.
Police said they had traced the two cakes to a bakery in Baghdad's Adhamiya district. This Sunni Arab stronghold was a bastion for supporters of the late dictator, and more recently a major locus of activity for Sunni extremists.
"This is a disturbing incident," said Mohammed Abbas, a police official. "The use of thallium in this way appears to show that someone in Adhamiya is reviving the techniques of the mukhabarat [the Saddam-era secret police].
"What happens if al-Qaida gets the know-how? We are urgently trying to discover how much thallium is out there and who would know how to utilise it."
Interior ministry officials said they believed the cakes were intended to kill senior members of the club. No treatment for thallium poisoning is available in Iraq and doctors say they are desperately trying to get the antidote. World Health Organisation officials in neighbouring Jordan, where some of the most serious cases are being treated, have requested help from Britain, which has flown medicines and other supplies to Basra.
Mohammed al Askari, a defence ministry spokesman, said the incident occurred at the capital's Airforce club about 10 days ago, when a former employee, a combat sports coach, turned up with two cakes as gifts for officials at the club. He had reportedly been fired several months earlier and had fled to Syria.
The Airforce club is owned by the defence ministry and runs one of Iraq's best-known football teams. Its manager, Samir Khadim, was a star of the Iraqi team throughout the 90s.
Khadim said the former employee, who he declined to name, "came to the club saying he wanted to have a reconciliation with a number of the officers and administrators here. He brought with him two handsome-looking cakes as a kind of peace offering."
But Khadim, who was not at the gathering, said the cakes went uneaten and were taken home by two officers to share among their families. Hours later the six-year-old daughter of one began to show signs of illness. The family took her to a hospital in Baghdad, where doctors pumped her stomach, but she died shortly afterwards.
Hours later the officer began to feel ill, as did three other members of his family. Again doctors pumped their stomachs. Blood tests were taken, and four days later they tested positive for thallium.
The other officer also soon fell ill; he too lost a daughter, and five close relatives were also affected. The two officers remain on the critical list.
Thallium was a favoured method for dispatching enemies of Saddam Hussein. It causes a slow, painful death. In the 80s a number of leading Kurdish rebels, including the present speaker of the Kurdish regional parliament, survived assassination attempts using thallium.
Antidotes and other supplies are understood to have arrived at the British base in Basra and arrangements are being made to take them to hospitals in Baghdad and Amman. The British department of health said: "The World Health Organisation has asked for assistance from the UK government in responding to a health incident in Iraq involving a small number of Iraqi citizens. We are cooperating fully in providing assistance."
Police said one man had been arrested in the investigation.
Khadim said: "These poor children were poisoned by mistake. For sure I and the other officers were the real target. I hope this is not the start of a trend and they find out who has these poisons. Iraq has enough on its plate already."
Via The Guardian
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