US Troops Use White Phosphorus in Iraq to ‘Obscure’ Kurdish Forces – Newspaper

Caution: this report comes from RT which may not be entirely unbiased

© Reuters

The US forces are reportedly using white phosphorus munitions against Islamist militants in Iraq, despite widespread perception of the weapon as indiscriminate and able to cause horrific injuries to civilians.

Images posted on a Pentagon-run public affairs website Dvids show a US Army artillery unit firing white phosphorus munitions in Iraq, identified by the Washington Post as M825A1 155mm shells. 

The M825A1 shells are generally used to create a smokescreen lasting for up to 10 minutes, or make signals and markings for friendly troops. But when used indiscriminately in civilian-populated areas, white phosphorus munitions can cause severe burns.

“Coalition forces use these rounds with caution and always in accordance with the Law of Armed Conflict,” Colonel Joseph Scrocca, public affairs director for the US-led coalition, told the newspaper in an emailed statement on Wednesday.


© 1st Lt. Daniel Johnson / dvidshub.net

“When M825A1 rounds are employed, they are done so in areas free of civilians and never against enemy forces,” he said, adding that the shells are being used for “screening and signaling” only.

However, on Thursday spokesman for the US-led coalition in Iraq Air Force Colonel John Dorrian somewhat revised Scrocca’s statement, claiming that the troops take “all reasonable precautions to minimize the risk of incidental injury to non-combatants and damage to civilian structures.”


© 1st Lt. Daniel Johnson / dvidshub.net

Dorrian refused to elaborate on whether the US military have used white phosphorus shells against enemy forces, telling the Washington Post that the munitions had been “used generally for the circumstances which I described.”

He added that the image posted on Dvids has allegedly been taken during a US operation to support Kurdish fighters’ advance with artillery fire.


© 1st Lt. Daniel Johnson / dvidshub.net

The operation, called Evergreen II, was focused on helping the Kurds secure the Gwer River Bridge, near the northern Iraqi town of Gwer, and the white phosphorus shells have been deployed to “obscure” Kurdish fighters’ offensive.

Evergreen II - does that mean white phosphorus is environmentally friendly? Haven't we been here before, with napalm? Haven't we seen the naked Kim Phuc running down the street with her arms outstretched screaming in pain from the napalm burning her body?

I'm astonished to think that after Viet Nam, someone would go out and invent a weapon that is exponentially more painful and deadly than napalm. But they are not intended for use against soldiers or civilians, you say. Well, I don't think napalm was intended for use against soldiers or civilians, but it was indeed used for such. And it's not as though militaries ever make a mistake and 'accidentally' bomb civilian targets, like hospitals, friendly combatants, or thousands of civilians in Aleppo and other cities in Syria and Iraq. 

People who invent such evil methods of torturing and killing people will have a lot to account for when they stand before Jesus Christ.

Although widely-used by some militaries, the legality of the white phosphorus munitions remains questionable. Many weapons experts and rights groups believe that the weapon is indiscriminate in nature and extremely dangerous for civilians.

Earlier this month, Amnesty International said that the weapon has deliberately been used by the Saudis against Yemeni Houthi rebels. In 2014, HRW alleged that the Ukrainian Army deployed “exceptionally cruel” incendiary weapons, including white phosphorus, against anti-Kiev rebels defending the eastern city of Donetsk. 

“When white phosphorus is used in attacks in areas containing concentrations of civilians and civilian objects, it will indiscriminately start fires over a wide area,” Mark Hiznay, associate arms director at HRW, told the newspaper.

“US and Iraqi forces should refrain from using white phosphorus in urban areas like Mosul, because whatever tactical military advantage is gained at the time of use, it will be far outweighed by the stigma created by horrific burns to civilian victims.”

In 2009, HRW called on NATO forces in Afghanistan to immediately release the results of their inquiry into deadly incident in which an eight-year-old girl in Kapisa province has been burned by white phosphorus munitions.

The girl died hours after the shelling because of several burn wounds on her face and neck. NATO forces denied use of white phosphorus munitions in the area and claimed that is was Taliban that may have fired the shells, but have not provided any evidence for their claims.

'Save Us from ISIS or Bomb Us with Chemical Weapons,' Pleads Iraqi Woman

A woman presumably from Fallujah, Iraq, has made an emotional appeal in a Facebook video that can’t be independently verified. She says her city is starving and called on the world to save them from jihadists or just bomb the town with chemical weapons.

The video appeared on Facebook on Thursday. Though the description under the footage says the video was shot in Fallujah, it isn’t possible to independently verify the location and the date the video was recorded.

In the footage the woman claims that she and her family are starving. She is seen pointing to a tiny casserole dish, apparently containing what’s left of the food for her family.

“We are dying of hunger. The Arab states, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, think of us, think of the people of Fallujah,” she says, as translated by the Jerusalem Post.

She says that the four entrances to Fallujah “are blocked” and that the local residents have no “access to food, drinks or medicine.”

“I invite you to come to Fallujah, go to the hospital and see the distress the people have been living in,” she said, apparently addressing the international community.

“Save us from Islamic State or bomb us with chemical weapons

so we will immediately die and not have a slow, agonizing death,”

She shouts emotionally.

US history in Fallujah

Fallujah was heavily affected by the 2003 US-led invasion in Iraq, according to reports from Human Rights Watch. In the report dubbed ‘Violent Response: The US Army in al-Falluja’, the group said US authorities should investigate the apparent use of excessive force against Iraqi protesters there in April 2003. 

HRW cited local witnesses who said that US soldiers fired without provocation, killing civilians.

In 2004, the Washington Post released an exclusive report, claiming US deployed phosphorous weapons in the city. 

“Insurgents reported being attacked with a substance that melted their skin, a reaction consistent with white phosphorous burns,” the paper stated.

The city of Fallujah in Anbar province was once a prosperous place called “a city of mosques.” However, it now appears to be completely deserted since IS militants took control of it back in January 2014. Since then scores of local residents have been killed, many of them starved to death.

RT visited the besieged city in February and saw areas ravaged in the battle against IS in Iraq. Cars caught in shelling and dilapidated buildings where people once lived and prayed now look like scenes from a post-apocalyptic movie.

The main battles between Iraqi forces and IS extremists have been taking place to the northwest of Fallujah.

IS emerged in Iraq in 2013 as an Al-Qaeda affiliate. In 2014, the terror cell attacked Kurdish-held territory in the northern part of Iraq and seized territories in Iraq’s Sunni heartland, including the cities of Mosul and Tikrit. By August of 2014, IS controlled nearly a third of Iraq.