Insurgents with two chlorine truck bombs attacked a local government building in Falluja in western Iraq today, the latest in a string of attacks using the poisonous gas, the US military said.
It said 15 Iraqi and US soldiers were wounded in the blasts and many more suffered chlorine poisoning.
"Numerous Iraqi soldiers and policemen are being treated for symptoms such as laboured breathing, nausea, skin irritation and vomiting that are synonymous with chlorine inhalation," a US statement said.
It said no Iraqi or US forces were killed in what it called a "complex attack" using mortars and small arms as well as the truck bombs.
Chlorine gas was widely used in World War One but its use in insurgent attacks in Iraq has particular resonance there. Saddam Hussein attacked Kurdish areas with chemical weapons in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war.
Earlier Iraqi police said two car bombs exploded near an Iraqi checkpoint outside a US military base in Falluja, killing eight Iraqi soldiers.