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November 10, 2005
Press Release
Countering Disinformation on the Use of Chemical Weapons in Iraq
The United States categorically denies the use of chemical weapons at
anytime in Iraq. Furthermore, the United States does not under any
circumstance support or condone the development, production, acquisition,
transfer or use of chemical weapons by any country. All chemical weapons
currently possessed by the United States have been declared to the
Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and are being
destroyed in the United States in accordance with our obligations under
the Chemical Weapons Convention.
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 have not targeted the Iraqi civilian population during
Operation Iraqi Freedom. Coalition Forces 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.
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