US ‘uses incendiary arms’ in Iraq

BBC News, 8 November 2005

Italian state TV, Rai, has broadcast a documentary accusing the US military of using of phosphorus bombs against civilians in the Iraqi city of Falluja.

In the film, eyewitnesses and ex-US soldiers who served in Iraq said white phosphorus bombs were used in built-up areas in the insurgent-held city.

Rai says this amounts to the illegal use of chemical arms, though such bombs are considered incendiary devices.

The US military admits using the weapon in Iraq to illuminate battlefields.

But US military officials deny using it in built-up areas. Washington is not a signatory of an international treaty restricting the use of white phosphorus devices.

WHITE PHOSPHORUS

Spontaneously flammable chemical used for battlefield illumination Contact with particles causes burning of skin and flesh Use of incendiary weapons prohibited for attacking civilians (Protocol III of Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons) Protocol III not signed by US

Transmission of the documentary comes a day after the arrival of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on a five-day official visit to Italy.

It also coincides with the first anniversary of the US-led assault on Falluja, which displaced most of the city's 300,000 population and left many of its buildings destroyed.

The documentary was shown between 0730 and 0800 in the morning on Rai's rolling news channel with a warning that the some of the footage would be disturbing.

The future of the 3,000-strong Italian peacekeeping contingent in Iraq is the subject of a political tug-of-war, says BBC correspondent David Willey.

’Destroyed evidence’

The documentary began with formerly classified footage of the Americans using Napalm bombs during the Vietnam war.

It shows a series of photographs of corpses with the flesh burnt off but clothes still intact—which it says is consistent with effect of white phosphorus on humans.

The film also says Washington has systematically attempted to destroy filmed evidence of the alleged use of white phosphorus on civilians in Falluja.

Italian public opinion has been consistently against the war and the Rai documentary can only reinforce calls here for a pullout of Italian soldiers as soon as possible, our correspondent says.

Both the Italian government and opposition leaders are talking about a phased withdrawal in 2006.

President Talabani and the US say the continued presence of multi-national forces in Iraq is essential.