US fired phosphorus in Iraq, TV reports (military admits MK77s, denies WP)

Can't believe this is the only article I've seen on this today. If it's true that we're using chemical weapons in a war to stop others from using chemical weapons, doesn't this merit outrage?

And some continued DU Front Page/Greatest Activity?

========================================================
US fired phosphorus in Iraq, TV reports
By Reuters | November 9, 2005

ROME -- Italian television aired a documentary yesterday alleging that the United States had used white phosphorus shells ''in a massive and indiscriminate way" against civilians in the November 2004 offensive in the Iraqi town of Fallujah.

The US military has denied that it used white phosphorus against civilians. It confirmed, however, that US forces had dropped MK 77 firebombs, which a documentary on Italian state-run broadcaster RAI compared to napalm, against military targets in Iraq in March and April 2003.

The documentary showed images of bodies recovered after a November 2004 offensive by US troops on Fallujah, which it said proved the use of white phosphorus against men, women, and children who were burned to the bone.

snip
''Suggestions that US forces targeted civilians with these weapons are simply wrong," US Marine Major Tim Keefe said in an e-mail message. ''Had the producers of the documentary bothered to ask us for comment, we would have certainly told them that the premise of the program was erroneous."

He said US forces do not use chemical weapons in Iraq.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/11/09/us_fired_phosphorus_in_iraq_tv_reports/


Details and video can be found in these threads:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5288550

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5295412

A fire bomb is a thin-skinned container of fuel gel designed for use against dug-in troops, supply installations, wooden structures, and land convoys. Fire bombs rupture upon impact and spread burning fuel gel on surrounding objects. One or more igniters and fuzes are used to ignite the fuel gel mixture upon impact. Fire bombs are used primarily for low level attacks.

The Mk 77 Mod 4 fire bomb holds approximately 75 gallons of fuel gel mixture and weighs approximately 500 pounds when filled.

The container is cigar-shaped, non-stabilized (will tumble end over end when released from the aircraft), lightweight, and is made of aluminum. It has a 14-inch suspension between the lugs and provides two filler holes, which are 31 degrees down from the top of the container. The filler holes are covered by filler caps, which are secured by retainer rings. The filler caps prevent foreign objects from getting inside the container during shipping and storage, and provides a sealed closure after the container is filled with fuel gel before fuzing. The filler holes also provide for the installation of the primary fuses. During fuzing procedures, the filler caps are removed and replaced by igniters, which seals the closure.

The primary fuzing system consists of the igniter Mk 273 Mod 0 with the M918 fuze or the initiator Mk 13 (igniter Mk 273 Mod 1 with the Mk 343 fuze). The Mk 77 Mod 4 also has provisions in the nose and tail for an alternate fuzing system using the AN-M173A1 fuze and AN-M23A1 igniter.

Functional Description
When the fire bomb is released from the aircraft, the arming wires are pulled from the fuzes, allowing the fuzes to become armed. When the bomb impacts the target or the ground, the container will rupture, disbursing the fuel gel mixture over the area. The fuzes detonate, rupturing the igniters, which , in turn, ignites the gel mixture.

Fuel Gel Mixture
Fire bomb fuel gel mixture, formerly called napalm, is a mixture of fuel and gelling solution that produces a thickened mixture. The gel should be stringy and sticky and readily adhere to most surfaces. The fuel gelling system consists of a fuel gelling unit, drums of gelling solution, aviation gas, mogas, JP-4, or JP-5 fuels.

http://www.ordnance.org/firebomb.htm

bookmarked this info you found - I just know we'll need it later.

:(

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=mk77+fallujah&spell=1

It was in the news here in Québec Canada.

After the sadness, anger is fueling my determination to tell everybody that this madness has to stop NOW.

... but of course.

I'm still sending info to US news and all of congress here.

warning it's graphic, but there's a lot of information on there in regards to WP and how it was used, as well as graphic pictures.

http://www.uruknet.info/?hd=0&p=m12676&l=x

<snip>

The use of white phosphorus "violates the Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare. Incendiary agents such as napalm and phosphorus are not considered to be CW agents since they achieve their effect mainly through thermal energy. http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/legal/cw/cwindex.html >

However, a report by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry concludes that White Phosphorus achieves its effects mainly through non-thermal energy. It must be concluded that White Phosphorus is considered a CW agent, and would violate the Geneva Protocol since its use causes indiscriminate and extreme injuries especially when deployed in an Urban area such as Falluja, Iraq.

Pictures of the dead of Falluja have been published by reporter Dahr Jamal of the Electronic Iraq project, and several commentators have suggested that their injuries are consistent with the use of White Phosphorus by US forces in Falluja.

God continue to be with him.


"If you are unsure about the pain experienced by those who died by the WP chemical attacks in Falluja try scraping the head of a (phosphorus-containing) match under your fingernail and crush it. Try using water to sooth the pain. Now imagine that covering 100,000 fold more surface area of your skin."

before someone (like the president) is called to account for it? . . .

(if I could figure out a way to shorten this and still get the message across, it could become a new verse to "Blowin' In The Wind") . . .