US rejects white phosphorus report

The US military in Iraq denied a report shown on Italian state television on Tuesday saying US forces used incendiary white phosphorus against civilians in a November 2004 offensive on the Iraqi town of Fallujah.

It confirmed, however, that US forces had dropped MK 77 firebombs which a documentary on Italian state-run broadcaster RAI compared to napalm against military targets in Iraq in March and April 2003.

The documentary showed images of bodies recovered after a November 2004 offensive by US troops on the town of Fallujah, which it said proved the use of white phosphorus against men, women and children who were burned to the bone.

"I do know that white phosphorus was used," said Jeff Englehart in the RAI documentary, which identified him as a former soldier in the US 1st Infantry Division in Iraq.

"Burned bodies. Burned children and burned women," said Englehart, who RAI said had taken part in the Fallujah offensive.

"White phosphorus kills indiscriminately, he added." The US Marines in Baghdad described white phosphorus as a "conventional munition" used primarily for smoke screens and target marking. It denied using it against civilians.

"Suggestions that US forces targeted civilians with these weapons are simply wrong," US Marine Major Tim Keefe said in an e-mail to Reuters.

"Had the producers of the documentary bothered to ask us for comment, we would have certainly told them that the premise of the programme was erroneous." He said US forces do not use any chemical weapons in Iraq. A US military spokesman in Baghdad said earlier on Tuesday he did not recall white phosphorus being used in Fallujah.

An incendiary device, white phosphorus is also used to light up combat areas. The use of incendiary weapons against civilians has been banned by the Geneva Convention since 1980.

The United States did not sign the relevant protocol to the convention, a UN official in New York said.