2005 press releases

U.S. Embassy Response to Belarusian State TV Report on Alleged Use of Chemical Weapons in Iraq (November 16, 2005)

On Sunday, November 13, 2005 Belarusian State TV alleged in its "In the Focus" (V tsentre vnimaniya) program that U.S. forces have used unconventional chemical weapons against the civilian population in Iraq. The report was erroneous from start to finish.

U.S. forces participating in the Operation Iraqi Freedom coalition continue to use the full array of lawful, conventional weapons against legitimate targets. To suggest that U.S. forces use Napalm and White Phosphorous as chemical weapons or as surrogates is to ignore the facts:

- The U.S. destroyed its last remaining stocks of Napalm in 2001. We do maintain an incendiary firebomb, the E-134 Bomb, Fire, Mk 77 Mod 5. The Mk 77 firebomb is not Napalm. Its chemical composition is different. Firebombs are not outlawed or illegal.

- U.S. forces did not use Mk 77 firebombs during Operation Al Fajr.

- The only instance of Mk 77 use during OIF occurred in March/April 2003 when U.S. Marines employed several bombs against legitimate military targets.

- White phosphorous is simply another conventional munition--it is not a chemical weapon. White phosphorus munitions are not outlawed or illegal. U.S. forces primarily use them as obscurants, i.e., smoke screens, or for target marking.

Suggestions that U.S. forces targeted civilians with these weapons are simply wrong.

- Coalition Forces (CF) have not targeted the Iraqi civilian population during Operation Iraqi Freedom.  CF go to extreme lengths to ensure that everything possible is done to ensure that civilians and noncombatants are not put in harms way during our operations.

- The Iraqi security forces and multi-national force have been engaged in operations against the terrorists, insurgents and former regime elements for the past two and a half years. In that regard, this conflict has been prosecuted in the most precise fashion of any conflict in the history of modern warfare.

- The loss of any innocent life is a tragedy, something Iraqi security forces and Coalition Forces painstakingly work to avoid every single day. Former Regime Elements, terrorists and insurgents have made a practice of deliberately targeting noncombatants; of using civilians as human shields; and of operating and conducting attacks against coalition forces from within areas inhabited by civilians.