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Tim Collins trained troops to fight with white phosphorus
By Sean Rayment Defence Correspondent
11/20/05 "The
Telegraph" -- -- Col Tim Collins, the controversial
Iraq war commander, trained his soldiers to use white phosphorus,
which burns through flesh to the bone, in combat against enemy
troops.
The admission by the former Special Air Service officer, revealed in
his autobiography Rules of Engagement, contradicts claims by the
Ministry of Defence that the chemical was only ever used to create a
smokescreen.
British troops also used white phosphorus to kill Argentinian troops
during the Falklands conflict.
In his book, Col Collins describes how he trained 1bn Royal Irish
Regiment for an attack codenamed Operation Fury planned for April
2003.
The colonel, who left the Army last year, said that he "directed"
the men to "perfect" house-to-house fighting skills in preparation
for the battle.
Discussing the weapons to be used in the operation in the Basra
area, he wrote: "The star of the show was the new grenade which had
only been on issue since the previous summer. It absolutely trashed
the inside of the room it was put into.
"I directed the men to use them where possible with white
phosphorus, as the noxious smoke and heat had the effect of drawing
out any enemy from cover, while the fragmentation grenade would
shred them."
Col Collins' tactics mirror the United States army "shake and bake"
technique which involves forcing troops out of cover with white
phosphorus and then killing them with artillery rounds.
The furore surrounding the weapon emerged last week after Lt Col
Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, used almost identical
phraseology to Col Collins, when he confirmed that "shake and bake"
was a recognised American tactic.
In an interview with the BBC, Col Venable said: "When you have enemy
forces in covered positions that your high explosive artillery
rounds are not having an impact on, one technique is to fire white
phosphorus into the position because the combined effects of the
fire and smoke will drive them out so that you can kill them with
high explosives."
He confirmed: "It was used as an incendiary weapon against enemy
combatants."
White phosphorus has been used by the British Army for decades to
create instantaneous smokescreens during battle. In contact with
skin, however, it burns to the bone and the gas it produces,
phosphorus pentoxide, is poisonous.
Article two of Protocol Three of the 1980 Convention on Conventional
Weapons bans the use of the weapon against civilians and also
military targets located within civilian areas. Although the US is
not a signatory of the convention, Britain is.
But there is now increasing debate as to whether the use of the
weapon should instead fall under the United Nations Convention on
Chemical Weapons.
Last week John Reid, the Defence Secretary, maintained the British
troops had only ever used white phosphorus as a battlefield
smokescreen. His department continued to stress that troops had
never used it as "an incendiary weapon, against either civilians or
even enemy combatants".
Although Operation Fury was cancelled, it remains unclear whether
British troops went on to use white phosphorus against Iraqi forces,
putting Col Collins' style of attack into action.
Prof Paul Rogers, of Bradford University's peace studies department,
said he believed that most soldiers would use all weapons at their
disposal.
He said: "There is a presumption among certain members of the
population that wars are clean. They are not."Pentagon spokesman
16 November 2005: Chemical grenade used on rebels, says Pentagon
Copyright of Telegraph Group
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