Afghan Officials: Taleban used poison gas to attack girls school, 98 injured

[BurtWorm]

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RsoeEdis-EmergencyAndDisasterInformation/~3/GI1sx_ULpC0/woalert_read.php

EDIS Number: CR-20090513-21641-AFG
Date / time: 13/05/2009 13:15:12
Event: CBRN
Area: Asia
Country: Afghanistan
State/County: Kapisa province
City: Muhmud Raqi
Number of Deads: None or unknow
Number of Injured: 98 persons
Damage level: Minor

Description:

Officials accused extremist militants of launching a poison gas attack Tuesday that caused dozens of schoolgirls to collapse with headaches and nausea as they waited in line for a Quran reading at their school in northeastern Afghanistan. The Taliban and other Islamic fundamentalists have regularly attacked girls schools in Afghanistan and the second apparent poisoning in two days has raised concerns that they have now found a new weapon to scare girls into staying at home rather than going to class. Students were gathering in the yard of Aftab Bachi school in Muhmud Raqi for a morning reading of the Quran when a strange odor filled the area. First one girl collapsed, then others, said the school's principal, Mossena, who fought for breath as she described the event from her hospital bed. Teachers told the rest of the students to go home. Mossena said she did not know what happened next because she collapsed and woke up in the main hospital in Muhmud Raqi, the capital of Kapisa province, which lies just northeast of Kabul.

At least 98 people were admitted, including 84 students, Mossena, 11 teachers and two cleaners, said Khalid Enayat, the hospital's deputy director. He said they were monitoring about another 30 students to see if they developed symptoms. Tuesday's incident is the third alleged poisoning at a girls school in about two weeks. On Monday, 61 schoolgirls and one teacher went to the hospital in neighboring Parwan province with a sudden illness that caused some to pass out. In late April, dozens of girls were hospitalized in Parwan after being sickened by what officials said were strong fumes or a possible poison gas cloud. "The enemies of Afghanistan are behind this poisoning," said Kapisa education director Abdul Gani Hedayat, using the government's typical term for the Taliban and other militants. "I am 100 percent certain it is poison," he said. "Ninety-eight people suddenly fell sick. This isn't something that happens just normally." He said blood samples had been sent to Kabul for testing.

Interior Ministry Spokesman Zemeri Bashary was more tentative, saying officials suspect some sort of gas poisoning in Kapisa, but that police were still investigating. The Kapisa patients complained of similar symptoms to those in the Parwan incidents, including headaches, vomiting and shivering, said Aziz Agha, a doctor treating the girls. Eighth-grader Sonya Sidiqi said she smelled something like cigarette smoke, "then my head started hurting and I started throwing up." The 13-year-old said she was feeling better after resting at the hospital but that she was still dizzy and felt as if she might vomit again.

[snooper2]

1. Sick fucking bastards

nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. awful

[KansDem]

3. I equated "child molestation" & "religion" a couple of weeks ago and was challenged by a DUer for #s

I mentioned the Catholic Church and the need for its supreme leader to apologize for boy-rape, and the Mormons in west Texas where men marry 12-year-old girls.

Add the Taleban, who has thrown acid into the faces of girls going to school in addition to this atrocity.

Religion has no place in civilized society...