Irregular Weapons used by US/UK;Cluster bombs,Napalm, &tc

[Englander]

http://zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=3410

CLUSTER BOMBS AND MUNITIONS

• On April 1, the residential al-Hilla outskirts of Babylon were hit with an undetermined number of BLU-97 A/B cluster bombs. Each bomb releases 202 bomblets which scatter over an area the size of two football fields, with a dud rate of 5%-7%. Immediate reports stated that at least 33 civilians died and around 300 were injured in the attack. Amnesty International condemned the attack, saying that “the use of cluster bombs in an attack on a civilian area of al-Hilla constitutes an indiscriminate attack and a grave violation of international humanitarian law." Independent reporter Robert Fisk wrote from al-Hilla, saying that many dud bombs landed, and remain, inside civilian homes.

NAPALM

• On March 22, reporters from CNN and the Sydney Morning Herald / Melbourne Age embedded with the 1st Battalion 7th Marines at Safwan Hill near Basra reported air strikes dropping napalm to beat Iraqi resistance.

BUNKER BUSTER BOMBS

• Two bunker busters were dropped in Baghdad on March 28. The bombs hit a communications tower and dug “huge craters” around the main telephone exchange center. Little information has surfaced from the attack, and there has been no indication as to why a penetrating bomb was used on an above ground target.


DEPLETED URANIUM

• On March 28, a tank unit fired two 120mm DU rounds down the main road of urban Kifl, creating a vacuum effect that “literally sucked guerrillas out from their hideaways into the street, where they were shot down by small arms fire or run over by the tanks.”

[rkc3]

1. I thought DU rounds were used primarily for tank-to-tank warfare.

Given the heavy mass of the round, they burn a hole in the shell of the opposing force's tanks on impact hurling hot metal into the cockpit. I've never heard of DU rounds creating a "vacuum effect."