Pentagon admits using chemical weapons in Iraq

PENTAGON officials say white phosphorous was used as a weapon against insurgent strongholds during the battle of Fallujah last November, but deny reports that the chemical weapon was used against civilians.

Lt Col Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesperson, said that while 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,” Mr Venable said.

The spokesperson 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 authors used the shorthand “WP” in referring to white phosphorous.

“WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition,” the authors 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 explosive]” munitions.

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 battle for Fallujah was the most intense and deadly fight of the war, after the fall of Baghdad in April 2003. The city, about 56 kilometres west of Baghdad, was a key insurgent stronghold. The authors of the “after action” report said they encountered few civilians in their area of operations.

Italian communists held a sit-in Monday in front of the US Embassy in Rome to protest the reported use by American troops of white phosphorous. Italy’s RAI24 news television aired a documentary last week alleging the US used white phosphorous shells in a “massive and indiscriminate way” against civilians during the Fallujah offensive.

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.

“There is a great deal of misinformation feeding on itself about US forces allegedly using [outlawed] weapons in Fallujah,” the department said. “The facts are that US forces are not using any illegal weapons in Fallujah or anywhere else in Iraq.”

White phosphorous can cause painful burn injuries to exposed human flesh.