Authorities arrested the head of the mess hall where at least 350 Iraqi policemen suffered food poisoning, as the military investigated whether the poisonings were intentional, officials said Monday.
Brig. Qassim al-Moussawi, a senior spokesman for the Iraqi military, denied that anyone had died after Sunday’s evening meal breaking the daily Ramadan fast.
On Sunday night, an official in the Environment Ministry, Jassim al-Atwan, said 11 policemen had died. The governor of the local province of Wasit, Hamad al-Latif, said “hundreds of soldiers were poisoned” at the police base in Numaniyah, but nobody had died.
Al-Moussawi said 350 to 400 policemen had been poisoned at Sunday night’s meal, but only four victims were admitted to hospital.
“A number of people have been arrested, including the man in charge of the mess hall,” al-Moussawi said.
Sunni insurgents fighting the police and military have not been known to use poison as a weapon. The afflicted policemen belong to the 4th Division of the National Police, whose officers are mainly Shiites.
The division normally operates around the town of Salman Pak on the southeastern outskirts of Baghdad — an area of intense Shiite-Sunni fighting.
The division was sent to the base in Numaniyah, 60 miles southeast of the capital, for further training.
Gov. al-Latif said the base’s food and water are supplied by an Australian contractor working through Iraqi subcontractors. He did not identify the Australian company.
