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U.K. Says White Phosphorous Used for Smoke Screens NewsMax.com Wires LONDON -- The British military uses white phosphorous in Iraq but only to lay smoke screens, the government said Wednesday, after allegations that U.S. troops used the incendiary weapon against civilians during the battle of Fallujah last year. White phosphorous, in a form used by the military, ignites when it is exposed to oxygen, producing such heat that it bursts into a yellow flame and produces a dense white smoke. It is used to mask troop movements and to light up a battlefield but also can cause painful burn injuries to exposed human flesh. "In the British army, we only use white phosphorous as a cover, as a smoke screen," Defense Secretary John Reid told reporters at a NATO training exercise in Germany. The November 2004 battle for Fallujah was the most intense and deadly fight of the war, after the fall of Baghdad in April 2003. The city, about 35 miles west of Baghdad on the Euphrates River, was a critical insurgent stronghold. Despite initial denials, Pentagon officials acknowledged Tuesday that U.S. troops had used the substance as an incendiary weapon against insurgent strongholds there. Story Continues Below
Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman refused to be drawn on claims that U.S. troops also used the substance against civilians during fierce fighting in the Iraqi city of Fallujah last November. "Use of phosphorus by the U.S. is a matter for the U.S.," the spokesman told reporters in a briefing, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to have his name published. U.S. veterans of the battle have written how they used white phosphorous in so-called "shake and bake" missions, using the substance to flush out insurgents, then high explosives to kill them. But the Pentagon denied an Italian television news report that the U.S. military had used white phosphorous in a "massive and indiscriminate way" against civilians during the offensive. Use of white phosphorous is not banned but is covered by Protocol III of the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons. The protocol prohibits use of the substance as an incendiary weapon against civilian populations and in air attacks against military forces in civilian areas. Blair's spokesman pointed out that Britain is a signatory to the convention. The United States is not. Britain's Liberal Democrat Party, which opposed the Iraq war, criticized U.S. forces for using the substance as an incendiary weapon. "A vital part of the effort in Iraq is to win the battle for hearts and minds," said the party's foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell. "The use of this weapon may technically have been legal, but its effects are such that it will hand a propaganda victory to the insurgency."
© 2005 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Editor's note: Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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