<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>"American pilots dropped the controversial incendiary agent napalm on Iraqi troops
during the advance on Baghdad. The attacks caused massive fireballs that obliterated
Iraqi positions. The Pentagon denied using napalm at the time, but Marine pilots & their
commanders have confirmed 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 mixture of
jet fuel & 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 & military targets in the Vietnam war. The upgraded
weapon, which uses kerosene rather than petrol, was used in March & April, when dozens of napalm bombs were dropped near bridges over the Saddam Canal & the Tigris river, south of Baghdad.
'We napalmed both those approaches,' said Colonel James Alles, commander of
Marine Air Group 11. '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 close to the Kuwaiti border, wrote the following day: 'Safwan Hill went up in a
huge fireball & the observation post was obliterated.' 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, while the Pentagon denied it, has outraged
opponents of the war. 'Most of the world understands napalm & incendiaries are a
horrible, horrible weapon," said Robert Musil, director of the organisation, Physicians
For Social Responsibility. Mr Musil said denial of its use 'fits a pattern of deception'.
The Pentagon said it had not tried to deceive. It drew a distinction between napalm
invented in 1942, & weapons dropped in Iraq, which it calls Mark 77 firebombs. They weigh 510lbs & consist of 44lbs of polystyrene-like gel & 63 gallons of jet fuel.
A spokesman admitted they were 'remarkably similar' to napalm but said they caused
less environmental damage. 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." Andrew Buncombe. The Independent. 10th August 2003</div>
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