US defends use of white phosphorus

US defends use of white phosphorus
By Will Dunham
10 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -

The Pentagon on Wednesday acknowledged
using incendiary white-phosphorus munitions in a 2004
counterinsurgency offensive in the Iraqi city of Falluja, but
defended their use as legal.

Army Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, said the U.S.
military had not used the highly flammable weapons against
civilians, contrary to an Italian state television report this month
which said the weapons were used against men, women and children in
Falluja who were burned to the bone.

"We categorically deny that claim," Venable said.

"It's part of our conventional-weapons inventory and we use it like
we use any other conventional weapon," added Bryan Whitman, another
Pentagon spokesman.

Venable said white phosphorus is not outlawed or banned by any
convention. However, a protocol to the 1980 Convention on
Conventional Weapons forbids using incendiary weapons against
civilians or against military targets amid concentrations of
civilians.

The United States did not sign the protocol.

White phosphorus munitions are primarily used by the U.S. military
to make smoke screens and mark targets, but also as an incendiary
weapon, the Pentagon said. They are not considered chemical weapons.
The substance ignites easily in air at temperatures of about 86 F
(30 C), and its fire can be difficult to extinguish.

U.S. forces used the white phosphorus during a major offensive
launched by Marines in Falluja, about 30 miles (50 km) west of
Baghdad, to flush out insurgents. The battle in November of last
year involved some of the toughest urban fighting of the 2-1/2-year
war.

Venable said that in the Falluja battle, "U.S. forces used white
phosphorous both in its classic screening mechanism and ... when
they encountered insurgents who were in foxholes and other covered
positions who they could not dislodge any other way."

He said the soldiers employed what they call a "shake-and-bake"
technique of using white phosphorus shells to flush enemies out of
hiding then using high explosives to kill them.

The Italian documentary showed images of bodies recovered after the
Falluja offensive, which it said proved the use of white phosphorus
against civilians.

"We don't target any civilians with any of our weapons. And to
suggest that U.S. forces were targeting civilians with these weapons
would simply be wrong," Whitman said.