Us Officials Admit To Dropping Napalm Firebombs On Iraqis

Officials Confirm Dropping Firebombs On Iraqi Troops - Results Are
’Remarkably Similar’ To Using Napalm

by James W. Crawley, Union Tribune staff writer
Published on Tuesday, August 5, 2003 by the San Diego Union-Tribune

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20030805-9999_1n5bomb.ht
ml

American jets killed Iraqi troops with firebombs - similar to the
controversial napalm used in the Vietnam War - in March and April as
Marines battled toward Baghdad.

Marine Corps fighter pilots and commanders who have returned from
the war zone have confirmed dropping dozens of incendiary bombs near
bridges over the Saddam Canal and the Tigris River. The explosions
created massive fireballs.

"We napalmed both those (bridge) approaches," said Col. James Alles
in a recent interview. He commanded Marine Air Group 11, based at
Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, during the war. "Unfortunately,
there were people there because you could see them in the (cockpit)
video.

"They were Iraqi soldiers there. It’s no great way to die," he
added. How many Iraqis died, the military couldn’t say. No accurate
count has been made of Iraqi war casualties.

The bombing campaign helped clear the path for the Marines’ race to
Baghdad.

During the war, Pentagon spokesmen disputed reports that napalm was
being used, saying the Pentagon’s stockpile had been destroyed two
years ago.

Apparently the spokesmen were drawing a distinction between the
terms "firebomb" and "napalm." If reporters had asked about
firebombs, officials said yesterday they would have confirmed their
use.

What the Marines dropped, the spokesmen said yesterday, were "Mark
77 firebombs." They acknowledged those are incendiary devices with a
function "remarkably similar" to napalm weapons.

Rather than using gasoline and benzene as the fuel, the firebombs
use kerosene-based jet fuel, which has a smaller concentration of
benzene.

Hundreds of partially loaded Mark 77 firebombs were stored on pre-
positioned ammunition ships overseas, Marine Corps officials said.
Those ships were unloaded in Kuwait during the weeks preceding the
war.

"You can call it something other than napalm, but it’s napalm," said
John Pike, defense analyst with GlobalSecurity.com, a nonpartisan
research group in Alexandria, Va.

Although many human rights groups consider incendiary bombs to be
inhumane, international law does not prohibit their use against
military forces. The United States has not agreed to a ban against
possible civilian targets.

"Incendiaries create burns that are difficult to treat," said Robert
Musil, executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a
Washington group that opposes the use of weapons of mass
destruction.

Musil described the Pentagon’s distinction between napalm and Mark
77 firebombs as "pretty outrageous."

"That’s clearly Orwellian," he added.

Developed during World War II and dropped on troops and Japanese
cities, incendiary bombs have been used by American forces in nearly
every conflict since. Their use became controversial during the
Vietnam War when U.S. and South Vietnamese aircraft dropped millions
of pounds of napalm. Its effects were shown in a Pulitzer Prize-
winning photograph of Vietnamese children running from their burned
village.

Before March, the last time U.S. forces had used napalm in combat
was the Persian Gulf War, again by Marines.

During a recent interview about the bombing campaign in Iraq, Marine
Corps Maj. Gen. Jim Amos confirmed aircraft dropped what he and
other Marines continue to call napalm on Iraqi troops on several
occasions. He commanded Marine jet and helicopter units involved in
the Iraq war and leads the Miramar-based 3rd Marine Air Wing.

Miramar pilots familiar with the bombing missions pointed to at
least two locations where firebombs were dropped.

Before the Marines crossed the Saddam Canal in central Iraq, jets
dropped several firebombs on enemy positions near a bridge that
would become the Marines’ main crossing point on the road toward
Numaniyah, a key town 40 miles from Baghdad.

Next, the bombs were used against Iraqis near a key Tigris River
bridge, north of Numaniyah, in early April.

There were reports of another attack on the first day of the war.

Two embedded journalists reported what they described as napalm
being dropped on an Iraqi observation post at Safwan Hill
overlooking the Kuwait border.

Reporters for CNN and the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald were
told by unnamed Marine officers that aircraft dropped napalm on the
Iraqi position, which was adjacent to one of the Marines’ main
invasion routes.

Their reports were disputed by several Pentagon spokesmen who said
no such bombs were used nor did the United States have any napalm
weapons.

The Pentagon destroyed its stockpile of napalm canisters, which had
been stored near Camp Pendleton at the Fallbrook Naval Weapons
Station, in April 2001.

Yesterday military spokesmen described what they see as the
distinction between the two types of incendiary bombs. They said
mixture used in modern firebombs is a less harmful mixture than
Vietnam War-era napalm.

"This additive has significantly less of an impact on the
environment," wrote Marine spokesman Col. Michael Daily, in an e-
mailed information sheet provided by the Pentagon.

He added, "many folks (out of habit) refer to the Mark 77 as
’napalm’ because its effect upon the target is remarkably similar."

In the e-mail, Daily also acknowledged that firebombs were dropped
near Safwan Hill.

Alles, who oversaw the Safwan bombing raid, said 18 one-ton
satellite-guided bombs, but no incendiary bombs, were dropped on the
site.

Military experts say incendiary bombs can be an effective weapon in
certain situations.

Firebombs are useful against dug-in troops and light vehicles, said
GlobalSecurity’s Pike.

"I used it routinely in Vietnam," said retired Marine Lt. Gen.
Bernard Trainor, now a prominent defense analyst. "I have no moral
compunction against using it. It’s just another weapon."

And, the distinctive fireball and smell have a psychological impact
on troops, experts said.

"The generals love napalm," said Alles, who has transferred to
Washington. "It has a big psychological effect."