LimbicNutrition Weblog

From Boing Boing:

In the San Francisco Chronicle:

“Usually we keep the gloves on,” said Army Capt. Erik Krivda, of Gaithersburg, Md., the senior officer in charge of the 1st Infantry Division’s Task Force 2-2 tactical operations command center. “For this operation, we took the gloves off.”

Some artillery guns fired white phosphorous rounds that create a screen of fire that cannot be extinguished with water. Insurgents reported being attacked with a substance that melted their skin, a reaction consistent with white phosphorous burns. Kamal Hadeethi, a physician at a regional hospital, said, “The corpses of the mujahedeen which we received were burned, and some corpses were melted.”

Link - Xeni Jardin

 

This is an horrific weapon. I remember the accounts of South African soldiers accidentally hit with phosphorous in Angola and having to have burning phosphor pulled out by surgeons operating on the wounds submerged in oil.