Blown up Americans were WMD hunters

The US forces killed and wounded in an explosion that went off after they began a search of a Baghdad building on Monday were members of the Iraq Survey Group, the combined military and intelligence task force scouring Iraq for weapons of mass destruction.

The US military has said the Americans were investigating a site where “chemical munitions” were suspected of being produced when the blast went off, killing two US service members.

The raid was carried out by the Iraq Survey Group, said a defence official in Washington said.

There was no word whether any chemical weapons were found at the site, or whether any precautions against dangerous chemicals had been taken in the neighbourhood after the blast.

The defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said investigators were trying to determine whether the ISG might have been given a false tip intended to lure them into a trap.

“It is mighty suspicious,” the official said.