I saw this on tv on the BBC, which is a pretty objective media source. How credible do you think the defense of the use of phosphurus is? After all if they wanted to build a smoke screen or scare the insurgents wouldnt they just use a smoke grenade(which is cheaper and has a larger quantity of?) or a regular shell. Seems to me liek you want to burn their skin of. Sorry fi this seems a bit loaded.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4440664.stm
The Pentagon has confirmed that US troops used white phosphorus during last year's offensive in the northern Iraqi city of Falluja.
"It was used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants," spokesman Lt Col Barry Venable told the BBC.
Col Venable denied that the substance - which can cause burning of the flesh - constituted a banned chemical weapon.
Early this month, Italian state TV, Rai, said white phosphorus had been used against civilians in Falluja.
White phosphorus is an incendiary weapon, not a chemical weapon
Col Barry Venable
Pentagon spokesman
US military interview
The US military vehemently denies this.
Washington is not a signatory of an international treaty restricting the use of white phosphorus devices.
The US-led assault on Falluja - a stronghold of the Sunni insurgency west of Baghdad - displaced most of the city's 300,000 population and left many of its buildings destroyed.
'Incendiary'
Col Venable told the BBC's PM programme that the US army used white incendiary munitions "primarily as obscurants, for smokescreens or target marking in some cases".
"However it is an incendiary weapon and may be used against enemy combatants."
WHITE PHOSPHORUS
Spontaneously flammable chemical used for battlefield illumination
Contact with particles causes burning of skin and flesh
Use of incendiary weapons prohibited for attacking civilians (Protocol III of Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons)
Protocol III not signed by US
Rai interview
And he said it had been used in Falluja, but it was "conventional munition", not a chemical weapon.
It is not "outlawed or illegal", Col Venable said.
"When you have enemy forces that are in covered positions that your high explosive artillery rounds are not having an impact on and you wish to get them out of those positions, one technique is to fire a white phosphorus round or rounds into the position because the combined effects of the fire and smoke - and in some case the terror brought about by the explosion on the ground - will drive them out of the holes so that you can kill them with high explosives," he said.
He said a statement on the US state department denying it had been used was old and based on "poor information".
After the Rai documentary was broadcast on 8 November, Italian protesters went to the US embassy in Rome to vent their fury.
But a spokesman at the UK Ministry of Defence said the use of white phosphorus was permitted in battle in cases where there were no civilians near the target area.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4440664.stm
The Pentagon has confirmed that US troops used white phosphorus during last year's offensive in the northern Iraqi city of Falluja.
"It was used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants," spokesman Lt Col Barry Venable told the BBC.
Col Venable denied that the substance - which can cause burning of the flesh - constituted a banned chemical weapon.
Early this month, Italian state TV, Rai, said white phosphorus had been used against civilians in Falluja.
White phosphorus is an incendiary weapon, not a chemical weapon
Col Barry Venable
Pentagon spokesman
US military interview
The US military vehemently denies this.
Washington is not a signatory of an international treaty restricting the use of white phosphorus devices.
The US-led assault on Falluja - a stronghold of the Sunni insurgency west of Baghdad - displaced most of the city's 300,000 population and left many of its buildings destroyed.
'Incendiary'
Col Venable told the BBC's PM programme that the US army used white incendiary munitions "primarily as obscurants, for smokescreens or target marking in some cases".
"However it is an incendiary weapon and may be used against enemy combatants."
WHITE PHOSPHORUS
Spontaneously flammable chemical used for battlefield illumination
Contact with particles causes burning of skin and flesh
Use of incendiary weapons prohibited for attacking civilians (Protocol III of Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons)
Protocol III not signed by US
Rai interview
And he said it had been used in Falluja, but it was "conventional munition", not a chemical weapon.
It is not "outlawed or illegal", Col Venable said.
"When you have enemy forces that are in covered positions that your high explosive artillery rounds are not having an impact on and you wish to get them out of those positions, one technique is to fire a white phosphorus round or rounds into the position because the combined effects of the fire and smoke - and in some case the terror brought about by the explosion on the ground - will drive them out of the holes so that you can kill them with high explosives," he said.
He said a statement on the US state department denying it had been used was old and based on "poor information".
After the Rai documentary was broadcast on 8 November, Italian protesters went to the US embassy in Rome to vent their fury.
But a spokesman at the UK Ministry of Defence said the use of white phosphorus was permitted in battle in cases where there were no civilians near the target area.
