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Iraq: 'Unusual Weapons' Used in Falluja
Dahr Jamail-repost by Eshinni - 26.11.2004 20:22
The U.S. military has used poison gas (created by burning white phosphor) and other non-conventional weapons against civilians in Fallujah, eyewitnesses
report.
BAGHDAD, Nov 26 (IPS) - The U.S. military has used poison gas and other
non-conventional weapons against civilians in Fallujah, eyewitnesses
report.
"Poisonous gases have been used in Fallujah," 35-year-old trader from
Fallujah Abu Hammad told IPS. "They used everything -- tanks,
artillery,
infantry, poison gas. Fallujah has been bombed to the ground."
Hammad is from the Julan district of Fallujah where some of the
heaviest
fighting occurred. Other residents of that area report the use of
illegal weapons.
"They used these weird bombs that put up smoke like a mushroom cloud,"
Abu Sabah, another Fallujah refugee from the Julan area told IPS. "Then
small pieces fall from the air with long tails of smoke behind them."
He said pieces of these bombs exploded into large fires that burnt the
skin even when water was thrown on the burns. Phosphorous weapons as
well as napalm are known to cause such effects. "People suffered so
much
from these," he said.
Macabre accounts of killing of civilians are emerging through the
cordon
U.S. forces are still maintaining around Fallujah.
"Doctors in Fallujah are reporting to me that there are patients in the
hospital there who were forced out by the Americans," said Mehdi
Abdulla, a 33-year-old ambulance driver at a hospital in Baghdad. "Some
doctors there told me they had a major operation going, but the
soldiers
took the doctors away and left the patient to die."
Kassem Mohammed Ahmed who escaped from Fallujah a little over a week
ago
told IPS he witnessed many atrocities committed by U.S. soldiers in the
city.
"I watched them roll over wounded people in the street with tanks," he
said. "This happened so many times."
Abdul Razaq Ismail who escaped from Fallujah two weeks back said
soldiers had used tanks to pull bodies to the soccer stadium to be
buried. "I saw dead bodies on the ground and nobody could bury them
because of the American snipers," he said. "The Americans were dropping
some of the bodies into the Euphrates near Fallujah."
Abu Hammad said he saw people attempt to swim across the Euphrates to
escape the siege. "The Americans shot them with rifles from the shore,"
he said. "Even if some of them were holding a white flag or white
clothes over their heads to show they are not fighters, they were all
shot.."
Hammad said he had seen elderly women carrying white flags shot by U.S.
soldiers. "Even the wounded people were killed. The Americans made
announcements for people to come to one mosque if they wanted to leave
Fallujah, and even the people who went there carrying white flags were
killed."
Another Fallujah resident Khalil (40) told IPS he saw civilians shot as
they held up makeshift white flags. "They shot women and old men in the
streets," he said. "Then they shot anyone who tried to get their
bodies...Fallujah is suffering too much, it is almost gone now."
Refugees had moved to another kind of misery now, he said. "It's a
disaster living here at this camp," Khalil said. "We are living like
dogs and the kids do not have enough clothes."
Spokesman for the Iraqi Red Crescent in Baghdad Abdel Hamid Salim told
IPS that none of their relief teams had been allowed into Fallujah, and
that the military had said it would be at least two more weeks before
any refugees would be allowed back into the city.
"There is still heavy fighting in Fallujah," said Salim. "And the
Americans won't let us in so we can help people."
In many camps around Fallujah and throughout Baghdad, refugees are
living without enough food, clothing and shelter. Relief groups
estimate
there are at least 15,000 refugee families in temporary shelters
outside
Fallujah.
_______________________________________________
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copy of an related article on indymedia ireland:
IRAQ: US-Army uses Napalm and Phosphor !
by cp Sunday, Nov 21 2004, 7:14pm
international / iraq / news report
- mass murder -
International media and newspaper report that the US-army uses Napalm and Phosphor bombs in Falluja.
Here is a summary (with links; some in foreign language)
MASS MURDER IN FALLUJA
Since the beginning of the US-attac on Fallujah the city is almost completely closed; which means that men between 15 and 55 are not allowed to leave the city. Helicopters and Snipers shoot on those who try to flee. The city is bombed all day, 7 days a week. US-army Sources say about 1200 "insurgents" have been killed; the number of dead civilians is not reported - and, probably: not counted. At the moment there are still about 50.000 to 100.000 people in the city. There is no medical aid for them. They have wether electricity nor water or food.
The US-army uses Napalm and Phosphor in Falluja:
PHOSPHOR OVER FALLUJA:
http://www.jungewelt.de/2004/11-13/001.php
(from a german newspaper report:)
- grenades with white phosphor have been fired on Falluja which created a wall of fire, burning all the time (phosphor flames can`t be stopped by water - phosphor creates fire by a chemical reaction).
- many people did melt; so enourmous is the heat
- Iraqi doctor Kamal Hadeethi told journalists of the Washington Post: »I`ve seen many people injured; the streets are full of crying people -and full of dead people: they even were melt down to the street.« Falluja residents told that all the streets are destroyed, houses are ruines, and at walls stick parts of human meat.
- white phosphor reacts simply by contact with air and creates temperatures which even make metall melt - when white phosphor burns it sets free clouds of toxic smog. therefore white phosphor can also be seen as a chemical weapon
- white phosphor was used in WW II against german cities
US-TROOPS DESTROY HOSPITALS IN FALLUJA
BBC, 6.Nov.04
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3988433.stm
A hospital has been razed to the ground in one of the heaviest US air raids in the Iraqi city of Falluja.
NAPALM IN FALLUJA:
according to: http://www.freace.de/artikel/aug2003/napalm060803.html
- it seems that the US used in this war every weapon they had - besides nukes.
- but also grenades with low radioctive uran were fired (all in all between 1000 and 2000 tons of uran-munition; in kosovo and serbia, were the US also used this weapon, cancer rate among the population nowadays is extremely high.)
- "Daisy Cutter" bombs (BLU 82)were used; effect: a fireball with radius more than one square mile; miles around this square mile the explosion creates a vacuum: so the lungs of people implode.
- according to the San Diego Union-Tribune Napalm was used against Iraqis. The Pentagon tries to manipulate and denies the use of Napalm: they don`t call it Napalm bombs today; they call it "Mark 77 Fire Bombs", wich would have only an "quite similar effect".
Officially the US destroyed all its Napalm bombs in 2001.
The speaker of the marines, Michael Daily, said, that "Mark 77 is more environment-friendly than Napalm." (Mark 77 consists mainly of cerosin - napalm consisted mainly of benzol; cerosin burns even faster)
- US-Marine Randolph Alles, who directed some Napalm attacs himself said "the Generals love Napalm because it has a big psychological effect - due to the fire ball and its typicall smell".
US-army also used DEPLETED URANIUM in this and the last war in Iraq which caused heavily genetic defetcs.
PICS:
http://www.irak.be/ned/archief/Depleted%20Uranium_bestanden/DU-SLIDES2000_bestanden/frame.htm
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