Napalm

During last year’s US offensive in the Iraqi town of Fallujah, did American forces use internationally banned weapons, such as napalm and other chemical agents? These reports have been circulating for some time, though rarely in the Western media:

“During the U.S. offensive, Fallujah residents reported that they saw “melted” bodies in the city, which suggests that U.S. forces used napalm gas, a poisonous cocktail of polystyrene and jet fuel that makes the human body melt.”

The United Nations banned the use of napalm against civilians in 1980, though the US never ratified this agreement. The Americans have already admitted to using napalm in Iraq. Andrew Buncombe reported in the Independent on Sunday in 2003:

“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.”

Further information is here.

Sydney Morning Herald journalist Lindsay Murdoch reported in March 2003, while travelling with a Marines artillery unit, that during the early stages of the invasion “40,000 pounds of explosives and napalm” had been dropped. The Pentagon immediately denied the existence of napalm in its weaponry. They were lying.