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GlobalSecurity.org In the News
The Independent August 10, 2003
US admits it used napalm bombs in Iraq
By Andrew Buncombe
American pilots dropped the controversial
incendiary agent napalm on Iraqi troops during the advance on Baghdad. The
attacks caused massive fireballs that obliterated several Iraqi positions.
The Pentagon denied using napalm at the
time, but Marine pilots and their commanders have confirmed that they used an
upgraded version of the weapon against dug-in positions. They said napalm,
which has a distinctive smell, was used because of its psychological effect on
an enemy.
A 1980 UN convention banned the use
against civilian targets of napalm, a terrifying mixture of jet fuel and
polystyrene that sticks to skin as it burns. The US, which did not sign the
treaty, is one of the few countries that makes use of the weapon. It was
employed notoriously against both civilian and military targets in the Vietnam
war.
The upgraded weapon, which uses
kerosene rather than petrol, was used in March and April, when dozens of napalm
bombs were dropped near bridges over the Saddam Canal and the Tigris river,
south of Baghdad.
"We napalmed both those [bridge]
approaches," said Colonel James Alles, commander of Marine Air Group 11.
"Unfortunately there were people there ... you could see them in the
[cockpit] video. They were Iraqi soldiers. It's no great way to die. The
generals love napalm. It has a big psychological effect."
A reporter from the Sydney Morning
Herald who witnessed another napalm attack on 21 March on an Iraqi observation
post at Safwan Hill, close to the Kuwaiti border, wrote the following day:
"Safwan Hill went up in a huge fireball and the observation post was
obliterated. 'I pity anyone who is in there,' a Marine sergeant said. 'We told
them to surrender.'"
At the time, the Pentagon insisted the
report was untrue. "We completed destruction of our last batch of napalm
on 4 April, 2001," it said.
The revelation that napalm was used in
the war against Iraq, while the Pentagon denied it, has outraged opponents of
the war.
"Most of the world understands
that napalm and incendiaries are a horrible, horrible weapon," said Robert
Musil, director of the organisation Physicians for Social Responsibility.
"It takes up an awful lot of medical resources. It creates horrible
wounds." Mr Musil said denial of its use "fits a pattern of deception
[by the US administration]".
The Pentagon said it had not tried to
deceive. It drew a distinction between traditional napalm, first invented in
1942, and the weapons dropped in Iraq, which it calls Mark 77 firebombs. They
weigh 510lbs, and consist of 44lbs of polystyrene-like gel and 63 gallons of
jet fuel.
Officials said that if journalists had
asked about the firebombs their use would have been confirmed. A spokesman
admitted they were "remarkably similar" to napalm but said they
caused less environmental damage.
But John Pike, director of the military
studies group GlobalSecurity.Org, said: "You can call it something other
than napalm but it is still napalm. It has been reformulated in the sense that
they now use a different petroleum distillate, but that is it. The US is the
only country that has used napalm for a long time. I am not aware of any other
country that uses it." Marines returning from Iraq chose to call the
firebombs "napalm".
Mr Musil said the Pentagon's effort to
draw a distinction between the weapons was outrageous. He said: "It's
Orwellian. They do not want the public to know. It's a lie."
In an interview with the San Diego
Union-Tribune, Marine Corps Maj-Gen Jim Amos confirmed that napalm was used on
several occasions in the war.
© Copyright 2003, Independent Digital (UK) Ltd