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ERBIL, IRAQ

Fearing the worst after a nearby blast

By David Filipov, Globe Staff, 3/30/2003

he press conference was about to begin Friday when a loud bang rocked the dining hall at The Four Lanterns, the fanciest hotel here, the main city of Kurdish-held northern Iraq. The journalists assembled inside rushed out onto the lawn to gawk at a pillar of thick white smoke billowing up from behind a building just down the street that was blowing ominously in our direction. Everyone had the same thought: What if this were the chemical weapons attack from Saddam Hussein that Kurds have been concerned about?

As the cloud drifted nearer, reporters looked around sheepishly at one other. No one appeared to have a gas mask handy.

Many journalists had brought gas masks and biohazard suits with them to Kurdish-controlled Iraq, the site in 1988 of one of the worst known chemical weapons attacks, in which more than 5,000 died in more than 200 villages. But the comparative lack of action on the northern front during the current conflict seems to have fostered a sense of complacency, despite the training many of the reporters had received on what to do during a possible chemical weapons attack.

That training dictates that in a hostile environment, if you hear an explosion and see smoke, immediately close your eyes and mouth and turn away from the wind. Then, put on your gas mask. Then, yell out "Gas! Gas! Gas!" to warn others, and get away as soon as possible.

This has to be done in nine seconds, although one chemical weapons safety instructor insists that, "If you want to stay alive, get it on in five."

Five seconds went by outside the Four Lanterns on Friday, then nine, then several minutes. No one shouted "Gas! Gas! Gas!" No one rushed to get away. A French camera crew went to film the site where the explosion took place.

At the site of the blast, police stood around a large crater. One of the shells had not detonated, but no one seemed to mind. Children played near the site, even though the crater continued to emit traces of white smoke.

Karim Sinjari, the interior minister of the local Kurdish administration, later said that unnamed "terrorists" had set off an artillery shell stuffed with TNT in an abandoned dump site to frighten civilians "by imitating a chemical weapons attack."

Relieved reporters gladly welcomed the false alarm -- and swore they would have their masks with them next time.