LONDON, Nov 15 (AFP) - A US military official on Tuesday confirmed white
phosphorous bombs were deployed against insurgents in Iraq last year but
denied media reports they used against civilians.

"White phosphorus is a conventional munition. It is not a chemical weapon.
They are not outlawed or illegal," Lieutenant-Colonel Barry Venable, a
Pentagon spokesman, told the BBC in an interview.

"We use them primarily as obscurants, for smokescreens or target marking in
some cases. However, it is an incendiary weapon and may be used against
enemy combatants."

Italy's state television RAI claimed last week the highly flammable
munitions were used against insurgents and civilians in the Iraqi town of
Fallujah in November last year.

Radical left-wing Italian politicians joined a protest at the US embassy on
Monday, including communist deputy Piero Folena, who called for a United
Nations inquiry into the alleged use of such weapons in Fallujah.

The RAI documentary, "Fallujah -- The Hidden Massacre", said the US military
used a kind of napalm and white phosphorus in the battle, a claim denied by
the US State Department.

Robert Tuttle, US ambassador to Britain, wrote in a letter published by The
Independent newspaper on Tuesday that "US forces do not use napalm or white
phosphorus as weapons".

But Venable said white phosphorous was useful to shift insurgents from
positions that could not be targeted by normal artillery.

"It was used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants," he told the
BBC.

"When you have enemy forces that are in covered positions that your high
explosive artillery rounds are not having an impact on... one technique is
to fire a white phosphorus round into the position," he said.

"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."

This is a bogus report

the actual reports show that this material was used against the terrorists.

A U.S. military official on Nov. 15 confirmed white phosphorous bombs were deployed against insurgents in Iraq last year but denied media reports they used against civilians.

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php...3120&C=america

And since the terrorists have no problem killing children and civilians, then I assume it is okay to deal with them as harsh as possible.

It was against terrorists!

This is the reaction from the US Embassy in Rome, Italy

the U.S. embassy in Rome released a statement on Nov. 9 labeling the TV report as "non-neutral, written by [reporters] who weren't in Fallujah at the time of the reported events."

"The report was broadcast a year after the events that it is supposed to describe. During the making of this documentary, the authors didn't ask for any [U.S. government] comments about the hypothesis they exposed. If they had done that, they would have been told that U.S. forces neither targeted civilians nor used the weapons mentioned in the documentary in an indiscriminate fashion."

How low anti-america propaganda can go?!

This is typical for the leftist Communist sympathizing italian press. If Italian Guy was available, he would probably agree.

Its war, happens. To imply that this was done on purpose is extremely disingenuous and insulting to anyone in uniform.

Originally Posted by bulldogg

Its war, happens. To imply that this was done on purpose is extremely disingenuous and insulting to anyone in uniform.

well, idiots out there think the US Army is a band of stupid gangs and natural born killers that enjoy killing others and do it for fun.

These idiots (liberal media) are piece of t and they make me very upset.

lol its kinda fun... i have known that the have used white phosphorous for a long time... or... i really might be wrong here but i dont think so...

some tanks use it for smoke screen since they got a "vision" that can see clearly through it, so they can blast the insurgents... i have heard storyes about how effective this tactic is.

and ye... its not chemical warfare... atleast i wouldn't count it like that.

I think the whole story is ridicilous and an attempt to raise more resistance in the public against the military actions in Iraq.

A unit placing smoke, some civilians in the nearby get caught in the smoke screen and you have a great story for the world to read that US uses chemical weapons in Iraq.

We use WP, but strictly for smoke and marking targets. If the enemy happen to be under it, and they recieve some "secondary" burning as a side effect then thats just too bad

Originally Posted by sunb!

I think the whole story is ridicilous and an attempt to raise more resistance in the public against the military actions in Iraq.

A unit placing smoke, some civilians in the nearby get caught in the smoke screen and you have a great story for the world to read that US uses chemical weapons in Iraq.

Your assessment of the story is probably right on.
The use of WP however is not limited to smoke screens. At times, it is an effective weapon against personnel as well. If WP gets on your skin, you have to literally cut it out of your flesh because it will not stop burning until it is spent or if it is denied free oxygen by being underwater.
Morten, as to the question of whether or not it's been used for a long time, the answer is yes it has. I have used it and seen it used many times and as far back as 35 years ago. It wasn't a new weapon then either. We had no real restriction on dropping "Willie Pete" . It has its uses just like any other weapon. It's much ado about nothing in my opinion.

Morten, as to the question of whether or not it's been used for a long time, the answer is yes it has. I have used it and seen it used many times and as far back as 35 years ago. It wasn't a new weapon then either. We had no real restriction on dropping "Willie Pete" . It has its uses just like any other weapon. It's much ado about nothing in my opinion.

okay... i read about it a long time ago in the Armorgeddon blog a tank commander who tells some NICE storyes... he mentions the tactic.

i do believe we also use WP in DK as smoke grenades.. i was really surprised when i heard that smoke grenades is used for escaping ... until i was 16 i always thought that a smoke grenade was, well, harmless. :P

i have also seen some clips where they use it in the assault on Falluja to light up the city border... i dont understand why people complains about it though...