Seven poisoned Iraqi athletes discharged, two in critical condition

Feb 11, 2008, 12:18 GMT

Amman - Seven Iraqi athletes and their relatives, who had been accidentally poisoned in Iraq, were discharged from a private Amman hospital on Monday but two were still in 'critical condition', a spokesman for the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

'Seven of the 11 poisoned Iraqis have recovered and were discharged after receiving WHO medication,' the spokesman, a doctor, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on condition of anonymity.

'Two of them are still in critical condition and they are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU),' he said.

The other two, both children, died earlier - one in Iraq and the other in Amman, he added.

Seven people recovered after WHO brought a British-made antidote from its headquarters in Geneva, he said.

'This medicine could not be found either in Baghdad or in Jordan or in any other countries in the vicinity,' the WHO doctor said.

'Britain sent a shipment of it earlier to the southern Iraqi town of Basra but it was easier and faster for us to bring it from Switzerland,' he added.

The 11 Iraqis had not been targeted for poisoning, but accidentally ate cakes laced with the poison thallium, the Amman- based Iraqi sources told dpa.

'The poisoned cake was sent to the Air Force Club, but many of the targeted members did not come or came late,' they said.

'Some people took the poisoned cake to their homes and ate it with their family members,' they added.

They said that the two people still at hospital were the secretary of the Air Force Club and his daughter.

The sources did not rule out the possibility of political motives for the poisoning incident.