Monday, April 26

Cue The Throwing Flowers. CUE Them. People, Where's The Throwing Flowers? Dammit, CUT!

Under Clinton, it's an "aspirin factory." Under Bush, it's a "chemical weapons plant."

Explosion levels suspected chemical weapons building in Baghdad; fighting erupts in Fallujah

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) A suspected chemical weapons warehouse exploded in flames Monday moments after U.S. troops broke in, killing two soldiers and wounding five. Jubilant Iraqis swarmed over the Americans' charred Humvees, waving looted machine guns, a bandolier and a helmet.

In Fallujah, U.S. troops battled insurgents in the latest violation of a tentative cease-fire for the besieged city. One Marine and eight insurgents were killed. [...]

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt did not say what sort of chemical munitions were believed to be produced at the Baghdad warehouse. After the blast, there was no sign of precautions against chemicals. ''Chemical munitions could mean any number of things,'' including smoke grenades, he said.

The cause of the blast was unclear. Kimmitt said a large number of explosives were in the building in the northern neighborhood of Waziriyah.

Asked about reports that the search team included members of the Iraq Survey Group the U.S. team looking for weapons of mass destruction Kimmitt said only: ''The inspection was by a number of coalition forces.''

He said the owner of the site was ''suspected of producing and supplying chemical agents'' to Iraqi insurgents, but did not elaborate.