An Italian TV channel has reported that US troops used chemical weapons during their assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah in November last year.
In a documentary entitled Fallujah - the hidden massacre- state satellite TV channel RAI News 24 alleges that US troops used white phosphorous indiscriminately on the city, causing horrific injuries to civilians, including women and children.
"I saw the burned bodies of women and children. The phosophorous explodes and forms a plume. Who ever is within a 150 metre radius has no hope," a former US soldier who served in the city told the documentary makers.
Testaments from former US soldiers, Fallujah residents, video footage and photographs, are used to support the documentary's claim that chemical weapons were used by the US.
It is also claimed that US forces used MK77, a form of Napalm - the chemical used with devastating effect on civilians during the Vietnam war - on civilians in Iraq
The use of white phosophorous and Napalm is prohibited by UN conventions and the use of chemical weapons is forbidden by a treaty which the US signed in 1997
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/e1807905-8678-47b5-a915-2bc7f91a5bbd.png)