"Poison gas targeted Afghan girls’ schools; Blood tests show toxins to blame in 10 recent cases" by Rod Nordland, New York Times | September 1, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan — Blood tests have confirmed that a series of cases of mass sickness at girls’ schools across the country over the past two years were caused by a powerful poison gas, an Afghan official said yesterday.
The admission was made in an interview, as a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health was answering questions about two new episodes in the past week. The spokesman, Dr. Kargar Norughli, said his ministry and the World Health Organization had been testing the blood of victims in 10 mass sickenings and had confirmed the presence of toxic but not fatal levels of organophosphates. Those compounds are widely used in insecticides and herbicides, and they are also the active ingredients of compounds developed in the past as chemical weapons, including sarin and VX gas.
Yeah, now the Taliban are using chemical weapons on their own women.
Yup, okay. War must really be going badly these days.
Norughli did not explain why the confirmations had not been announced earlier.
Because they just thought of it?
But he emphasized that how the gas was delivered — and even whether the poisonings were deliberate — remained a mystery. There have been no fatalities, and no one has claimed responsibility for the episodes.
Many local officials had dismissed the cases as hysteria provoked by acid and arson attacks on schoolgirls by Taliban fighters and others who objected to their education.
Related:
"She taught at one of the handful of girls’ schools the Taliban permitted"
Also see: Memory Hole: How I Came to Love the Veil
So they want the girls to be educated after all, huh?
Can you see why I start to doubt the Muslim-hating, war-promoting, Zionist AmeriKan MSM?
But the cases have been reported only in girls’ schools or in mixed schools during hours set aside only for girls....
Attacks on schools in Afghanistan, particularly girls’ schools, have been rife in recent years, with most of them carried out by insurgents.
So says the newspaper, anyway.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Education, Gul Agha Ahmadi, said 60 schools had been burned down or destroyed so far this year. Cases where acid is thrown on female students are frequent in the south and occasionally even in Kabul.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, reached by phone, said the insurgents oppose some girls’ education but would not resort to gas attacks.
“We have not and will never take such action against innocent girls,’’ he said.
That is the first thing I have believed in the paper in a long, long, time.
FLASHBACK:
""Militants in US gear thwarted from attacking NATO bases" by Robert H. Reid, Associated Press | August 29, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan — Although the Afghan capital is relatively secure, incidents apparently directed at female students have raised concern about Taliban intimidation within the city.
Oh, now they ONCE AGAIN WAGE the WOMAN CARD!
The Health Ministry said 48 pupils and teachers at the Zabihullah Esmati High School were rushed to hospitals yesterday after falling ill with breathing problems and nausea. All but nine were treated and released after blood samples were taken to try to determine the cause.
On Wednesday, dozens of students and teachers at another Kabul girls’ school became sick when an unknown gas spread through classrooms, education officials said.
Yeah, good thing the American AmeriKan military would never think of doing such a thing.
The cause of that incident has not been determined, but officials fear the apparent poisonings could be part of an insurgent campaign to frighten girls from attending school.
Are they blowing them up with missiles and gunning them down in raids?
If you think I'm buying this hunk of propaganda....
Two students were treated at a hospital in Kabul yesterday. Nearly 50 students and teachers at a high school were taken to hospitals after falling ill with breathing problems and nausea. (Ahmad Massoud/Associated Press)
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