Pentagon Used WP In Iraq
(latest revelation)

By-Robert Burns,
AP military writer
Tues Nov 15 2005

Washington-- Pentagon officials acknowledged Tuesday that US troops used White Phosphorous as a Weapon against Insurgent strongholds during the battle of Fallujah last November. But they denied an Italian Television News Report that the spontaneously flammable material was used against civilians.

Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, said that White Phosphorous is most frequently used to mark targets or obscure a position, it was used at times in Fallujah as an Incendiary Weapon against enemy combatants. "It was not used against civilians," Venable said.

The spokesman referred reporters to an article in the March-April 2005 edition of the Army's Field Artillery Magazine, an official publication, in which Veterans of the Fallujah fight spelled out their use of White Phosphorous and other Weapons. The author used the shorthand "WP" in referring to White Phosphorous.

"WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition," the author wrote. "We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later in the fight, as a potent Psychological Weapon against the Insurgents in trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them with HE (high explosives) munitions."

"We fired 'shake and bake' missions at the Insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out."

The authors added, in citing lessons for future urban battles, that fire-support teams should have used another type of smoke bomb for screening missions in Fallujah, "and saved our WP for lethal missions."

The State Department, in response, initially denied that US troops had used White Phosphorous against enemy forces. "They were fired into the air to illuminate enemy positions at night, not at enemy fighters." The Department later said its statement had been incorrect.

Venable said White Phosphorous shells are a standard Weapon used by Field Artillery Units and are not banned by any International Weapons Convention to which the US is a signatory.

White Phosphorous is a colorless-to-yellow translucent wax-like substance with a pungent, garlic-like smell. The form used by the military Ignites once it is exposed to Oxygen, producing such heat that it bursts into a yellow flame and produces a dense white smoke. It can cause painful burn injuries to exposed human flesh.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051115/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/iraq_white_phosphorous