Poisoning kills 7 Iraqi police, hundreds more ill

NUMANIYA, Iraq, Oct 9 (Reuters) At least seven policemen died and hundreds of others fell ill after suffering food poisoning in the town of Numaniya, south of Baghdad, police sources at the base said today.

It was not clear if the poisoning at an Iraqi military base yesterday evening was deliberate but police sources said they arrested four cooks today suspected of tampering with the food.

But the spokesman for the commander of the Iraqi armed forces said no one had died.

''Three hundred and fifty to 400 people were poisoned, they were given medical treatment instantly and four were taken to a nearby hospital and everyone has returned to normal,'' spokesman Brigadier Qasim al-Musawi told a news conference.

But Lieutenant-Colonel Hasan Nima at the base said the policemen, from the Interior Ministry's 4th division, became ill only minutes after the meal and insisted at least 1,350 of the 2,000 policemen at the base were hospitalised.

A local Health Ministry official said a team was sent out to investigate the cause of the illness.

The policemen, nearly all Shi'ite Muslims from southern Iraq, blamed several people most notably a Sunni contractor providing food for the military base where the police were ''re-training''.

But Qasim and other Shi'ites did not say they believed the poisoning had sectarian motives.

REUTERS PDM RK1523