US depolys chemical weapons in Iraq

International mainstream media reports the US has deployed the banned chemical weapon napalm in Iraq.

From the initial report on 22 March:

"Over the next eight hours, the marines opened fire with their howitzers, which have a range of 30 kilometres. They were supported by US Navy aircraft, which dropped napalm.

The Pentagon has since denied that napalm was used in the attack. A navy spokesman in Washington, Lieutenant Commander Danny Hernandez, denied that napalm - which was banned by a United Nations convention in 1980 - was used.

"We don't even have that in our arsenal," he said.

The navy admitted to using napalm as late as 1993 in training exercises on the island of Vieques in Puerto Rico, but the last cannister of a vast US naval stockpile was reportedly destroyed in a public ceremony in April 2001."

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/03/21/1047749942344.html


A followup with another official denial:

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/03/23/1048354475977.html


But here, an "embedded" CNN reporter casually mentions its use after eyewitnessing the same incident:

"It is now estimated the hill was hit so badly by missiles, artillery and by the Air Force, that they shaved a couple of feet off it. And anything that was up there that was left after all the explosions was then hit with napalm. And that pretty much put an end to any Iraqi operations up on that hill. "

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/21/otsc.irq.savidge/