White phosphorus ('Willy Pete')
[back] Iraq

[pdf] Detailed Facts About White Phosphorous. US. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine

Israel
[2009 Jan] "The Incendiary IDF" by Kenneth Roth
[2009 Jan] Israel 'admits' using white phosphorus munitions

Iraq
[2005]
US criticised for use of phosphorous in Fallujah raids "If it hits your clothes it will burn your clothes and if it hits your skin it will just keep on burning," he said. Experts said that, if not removed, white phosphorus - known as Willy Pete - can burn to the bone. The fumes from phosphorus cause severe eye irritation.

[2005] US forces 'used chemical weapons' during assault on city of Fallujah  But now new information has surfaced, including hideous photographs and videos and interviews with American soldiers who took part in the Fallujah attack, which provides graphic proof that phosphorus shells were widely deployed in the city as a weapon. In a documentary to be broadcast by RAI, the Italian state broadcaster, this morning, a former American soldier who fought at Fallujah says: "I heard the order to pay attention because they were going to use white phosphorus on Fallujah. In military jargon it's known as Willy Pete. "Phosphorus burns bodies, in fact it melts the flesh all the way down to the bone ... I saw the burned bodies of women and children. Phosphorus explodes and forms a cloud. Anyone within a radius of 150 metres is done for."

[2005] Britain dragged into white phosphorus row

[DVD] Fallujah: the Hidden Massacre

Germany World War II
[2001]
TERROR BOMBING: THE CRIME OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY by Michael Walsh

See Depleted Uranium  Napalm  Iraq

See:
[2003] Horrifying US Secret Weaponry Unleashed in Baghdad  the tank suddenly let loose a blinding stream of what seemed like fire and lightning, engulfing a large passenger bus and three automobiles. Within seconds the bus had become semi-molten, sagging "like a wet rag" as he put it. He said the bus rapidly melted under this withering blast, shrinking until it was a twisted blob about the dimensions of a VW bug. As if that were not bizarre enough, al-Ghazali explicitly describes seeing numerous human bodies shriveled to the size of newborn babies. By the time local street fighting ended that day, he estimates between 500 and 600 soldiers and civilians had been cooked alive as a result of the mysterious tank-mounted device.

Quotes
[pdf] Detailed Facts About White Phosphorous. US. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine  White phosphorous is spontaneously flammable and is an extremely toxic inorganic substance. It is used primarily as a smoke agent and can also function as an antipersonnel flame compound capable of causing serious burns
   The vapors of burning phosphorous (yellow) can be a mild irritant; continued exposure can lead to bronchitis, persistent coughing, severe burns, weakness, anemia, loss of appetite, and possibly pneumonia; if ingested, the fatal dose is 1 mg/kg. WP can cause thirst cyanosis, abdominal pain, jaundice; acute poisoning produces shock, coma and death in a short time (symptoms may subside and then return); liver and kidney damage may occur. It can cause very severe, slow-healing burns on contact and particularly deep burns with hemorrhaging. WP can also cause severe burns and permanent damage to the eyes.
    Inhalation or ingestion of small amounts of phosphorus over long periods can lead to necrosis or deformation of the lower jaw, damage to teeth, and susceptibility to bone fracture. Persons with pre-existing skin disorders, eye problems, or impaired liver or kidney function may be more susceptible to the effects of the substance.

The use of phosphorous bombs, by the British government on raids against Germany, was outlawed under international law because its use has no other purpose than to strike terror in its means of causing death and injury. It is a napalm-like chemical which when alight cannot be extinguished.....The exploding phosphorous bombs sprayed their contents indiscriminately and clothing caught fire and had to be torn free from the body quickly otherwise the wearer would suffer terrible nightmarish burns. When the liquid splattered on to people’s hair, the victim was doomed. There was no chance to cut off the hair. The chemical globules, like a burning jelly, burned fiercely setting aflame the entire head and indeed, the head itself burned.
    They writhed in the rubble-strewn roads with their bodies partially ablaze. Others were nearer to the River Alster and dozens of these shrieking demented souls, trailing tongues of flaming smoke and fire, dashed madly to the water to fling themselves into the lifesaving liquid. Men, women and children too, ran hysterically, falling and stumbling, getting up, tripping and falling again, rolling over and over. Most of them managed to regain their feet and made it to the water. But many of them never made it and were left behind, their feet drumming in blinding pain on the overheated pavements amidst the rubble, until there came one last convulsing shudder from the smoking 'thing' on the ground, and then no further movement.
    Those who made it to the water found the safety they had sought so desperately - but incredibly, some faced a choice that stuns the mind with horror. Water prevents phosphorous jelly from burning because it denies the chemical the one thing it needs to burn; oxygen. Those with the blazing chemical on their arms, legs and their bodies were able to douse the flames by submerging the burning areas. But many had the blazing phosphorous jelly on their faces and heads. Certainly the spluttering chemicals went out as the victims ducked their heads beneath the water, but the moment they brought their heads up again to break the surface and take a breath of air, the phosphorous burst into flames again immediately. And so the victims were faced with the choice. Death by drowning or death by burning; men, women and children. While others watched sick and despairingly, the victims of phosphorous on faces and heads thrashed wildly in the brackish waters, screaming with pain and frustration. Spluttering and choking, they alternatively burned or drowned. TERROR BOMBING: THE CRIME OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY by Michael Walsh

Holocaust over Dresden, known as the Florence of the North. Dresden was a hospital city for wounded soldiers. Not one military unit, not one anti-aircraft battery was deployed in the city. Together with the 600,000 refugees from Breslau, Dresden was filled with nearly 1.2 million people. Churchill had asked for "suggestions how to blaze 600,000 refugees". He wasn't interested how to target military installations 60 miles outside of Dresden. More than 700,000 phosphorus bombs were dropped on 1.2 million people. One bomb for every 2 people. The temperature in the centre of the city reached 1600o centigrade. More than 260,000 bodies and residues of bodies were counted. But those who perished in the centre of the city can't be traced. Appr. 500,000 children, women, the elderly, wounded soldiers and the animals of the zoo were murdered in one night. [2001] TERROR BOMBING: THE CRIME OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY by Michael Walsh