Secretary-General condemns terrorist chlorine bombings in Iraq

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today strongly condemned the recent multiple terrorist bombings using chlorine gas in Iraq which wounded or sickened more than 350 people.

“The Secretary-General is appalled by these attacks which are clearly intended to cause panic and instability in the country,” his spokesperson, Michelle Montas, said in condemning the blasts in the Al Anbar province.

She added that Mr. Ban “is confident that firm action will be taken to prevent such attacks in the future.”

In his latest report to the Security Council on Iraq, released earlier this month, the Secretary-General warned that “new tactics involving the use of chlorine gas in their weapons systems [are] worrisome.”

On Thursday, Mr. Ban’s chief envoy to Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, told the Council that “chlorine has been used to terrorize the population.”

Up until that time the actual additional casualties sustained had been “relatively low.”