16/11/2005 18:21

White phosphorus used in Iraq

But Pentagon denies Italian TV claim that civilians died


(ANSA) - Washington, November 16 - The Pentagon has admitted using white phosphorus in Iraq but denies claims made by an Italian documentary that the spontaneously flammable chemical was used against civilians .

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Venable said on Tuesday that white phosphorus was used as an incendiary weapon against insurgent strongholds during the US military's siege of the Iraqi city of Falluja last year .

"It was not used against civilians," he said .

Washington had earlier denied the use of white phosphorus at all in Falluja, a city just to the west of Baghdad which suffered widespread destruction during the November 2004 offensive .

White phosphorus is a lethal chemical which is capable of burning and melting human skin. The smoke it produces is capable of causing external and internal chemical burns .

An international treaty restricts the use of white phosphorus devices, banning its use against civilian targets .

The US has not signed the treaty. Falluja, The Hidden Massacre, an Italian documentary aired on November 8, accused the US of using white phosphorus against civilians in the city, including women and children, and exploding napalm-like bombs .

The 20-minute documentary, aired on state broadcaster RAI's non-stop news satellite channel Rainews 24, used witness accounts from residents and former American troops, as well as graphic footage and photographs to back its claims .

The allegations were firmly denied by the Pentagon .

But in a separate interview on BBC radio on Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Venable said that the US State Department's recent assertion that white phosphorus had not been used in Falluja was based on "poor information" .

He also said that "white phosphorus is a conventional munition. It is not a chemical weapon. It is not outlawed or illegal." He said the US army used the incendiary munitions "primarily as obscurants, for smokescreens or target marking in some cases." "However it is an incendiary weapon and may be used against enemy combatants," he added .

Critics say the substance falls into the chemical weapons category if deliberately used against people. Up to 300,000 people were driven from Falluja during the US bombardment, which left some 50 American troops and an estimated 1,200 insurgents dead. The civilian death toll is not known .

ITALIAN DOCUMENTARY SAYS CIVILIANS HIT

The Rainews 24 documentary was made by Italian journalists Sigfrido Ranucci and Maurizio Torrealta .

Iraqi biologist Mohamad Tareq, who was in Falluja during the bombardment, told the reporters that "a rain of fire fell on the city, the people struck by this multi-coloured substance started to burn. We found people dead with strange wounds, their bodies burned but their clothes intact." Former American marine Jeff Englehart said in the documentary that "I heard the order to be careful because white phosphorus was being used in Falluja... White phosphorus kills indiscriminately... When it makes contact with the skin, then it's absolutely irreversible damage, burning flesh to the bone." Englehart said he saw the burned bodies of women and children in Falluja .

The documentary shows white phosphorus being used in the form of parachute flares for illumination and in the form of incendiary bombs in an attack on a large residential area .

Pentagon spokesman Todd Vician subsequently denied the allegations .

"The US categorically denies the use of chemical weapons at any stage in Iraq," he said .

"People seeking to discredit the US find it useful to invent the false accusation that the US is using weapons of this sort," Vician said .

"Even though we haven't seen this documentary, we have seen similar unfounded accusations in the past," he said .

Allegations that the US used "unusual" weapons in Falluja have been circulating ever since the time of the siege. Three US soldiers who took part in the bombardment told an American military magazine earlier this year that white phosphorus was used to flush insurgents out .

"WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition," they told the March-April edition of Field Artillery .

An embedded reporter, Darrin Mortenson, also said that he saw an American officer direct his men to "fire round after round of high explosives and white phosphorus charges into the city Friday and Saturday, never knowing what the targets were or what damage the resulting explosions caused." The Italian opposition has urged the government of Premier Silvio Berlusconi - which is staunchly pro-US - to condemn the US administration for the use of white phosphorus .

Democratic Left leader Piero Fassino, whose party is the largest in the opposition, has demanded that the government report to parliament on the issue .

Anti-war protesters and members of the opposition have also staged demonstrations in front of the US Embassy in Rome. A similar protest was held in Milan on Tuesday .

But some members of the centre-right governing coalition have criticised the Rainews 24 documentary, implying that its coverage of the issue was biased and unreliable .

An MP with Berluscon's Forza Italia party, Gianstefano Frigerio, said this week that "improvements must be made in the way of tackling such delicate and potentially exploitable issues. Freedom of expression in Italy must not become an excuse for renouncing the responsibility to provide balanced information." Rainews 24 chief editor Roberto Morrione said on Monday that "there are those who accuse Rainews 24 of not being neutral and of having deliberately fuelled anti-American polemics .

I would like to assure them that Rainews 24 has always pursued and will continue to pursue only the search for truth... and full information in complete independence." Meanwhile, the Usigrai union representing RAI journalists complained on Wednesday that the public broadcaster appeared to be "embarrassed" by the worldwide interest in the documentary .

"We get the strong feeling that too many people in RAI are almost embarrassed by the international resonance... The BBC, which is often held up as a model in Italy, considered the report important news... but most RAI news programmes gave it scant attention or ignored it altogether," it said .