Chlorine Bomb Blamed for Up to 45 Deaths in Iraqi Shia Town

Iraq's latest horror weapon - the chlorine bomb - killed up to 45 people and wounded 60 others in a Shia town, police said yesterday, as a hail of mortar bombs hit the heavily guarded, US-controlled, "green zone" in the heart of Baghdad for the second consecutive day.

The chlorine gas, in canisters loaded in a small van, hit a market in Abu Sayda in Diyala province on Tuesday, in a tactic pioneered by Sunni insurgents in Ramadi last month. Diyala has seen a spike in violence since the US-Iraqi "surge" in the capital.

Hospital officials and victims said it appeared that chlorine had been used as many of those injured suffered burns, had difficulty breathing and had their sight affected. But other Iraqi and US officials denied that toxic gas was involved. Casualty figures ranged from 32-45.

The mortars or rockets that hit the green zone again yesterday killed two Iraqis and wounded 10 other people - and again suggested that security operations in the capital are only partially effective. The zone houses the Iraqi parliament, many ministries, and foreign embassies.

US forces, meanwhile, continued a massive search in a rural area south of Baghdad for three soldiers who were abducted on Saturday by an al-Qaida affiliate group.

Evidence of both the sophistication and resilience of insurgent attacks came as the White House announced the nomination of a new military leader to coordinate the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, chosen after several other candidates turned down the offer, is being billed as a bureaucratic warrior who can ensure that commanders and ambassadors in the war zones get what they need. "Douglas Lute can make sure that happens quickly and reliably," President George Bush said.

Gen Lute, the Pentagon's director of operations, had harboured doubts about the surge, but now believes it is the right strategy, said a National Security Council spokesman, Gordon Johndroe. His job will be to work through conflicts among the Pentagon, the state department and other agencies and deliver fast responses.

In a 2005 interview with the Financial Times, Gen Lute talked about withdrawing large numbers of US troops from Iraq. "We believe at some point, in order to break this dependence on the ... coalition, you simply have to back off and let the Iraqis step forward," he said. "You have to undercut the perception of occupation in Iraq. It's very difficult to do that when you have 150,000-plus, largely western, foreign troops occupying the country."

Iraq's foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, meanwhile dismissed a Pakistani proposal for a Muslim peacekeeping force, saying more foreign troops were not welcome. The idea was put forward at a meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference on Tuesday by the Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf. Mr Zebari said the idea had been raised and rejected before.