http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...p?story=432201

US admits it used napalm bombs in Iraq
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
10 August 2003

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.