Suck up resistance

These made war from the US side not only far more precise and accurate, but also more destructive than it ever had been before. The only choice for Iraqi forces was to fight back with small arms rather than attempt pitched battles against far superior forces which also had air superiority and 2,000 sorties to invest in the war per day.

It is in this context that the images of the four-day battle of Kifl, a small suburb of An Najaf, from March 24-27 need to be revisited. This is where the Iraqi fighters started to simply keep coming head-on to the world8217;s most modern force with a ferociousness that would be difficult to imagine. A sandstorm complicated matters further. When the sandstorm lifted, waves of Iraqi fighters were seen to come charging on to the tanks. US officers were reported to have said that Iraqi 8220;fighters in minivans, pick-up trucks and cars drove straight at the oncoming tanks.8221; These were not just Fidayeen, but also included soldiers and Republican Guards. At about that time, the US tank unit commander gave orders to fire into the main road. Reports say that the tank unit fired two 120mm high velocity depleted uranium rounds straight down the main road 8220;creating a powerful vacuum that literally sucked guerrillas out from their hideaways into the street8221; where they were shot down by small arms.

8220;We took a lot of fire, and we gave a lot of fire. You couldn8217;t see anything except all those hues of red and the sound of fire from all sides. It was not earthly. I8217;ll have nightmares about it,8221; said the tank unit commander who ordered the fateful shots, but did not want his family back home to identify him. Chaplains tried to counsel the troops after the battle.

Depleted uranium has been used by US forces in 1991 war, and had led to after-effects that have continued to be investigated. But accounts of those fateful shots do not tend to tally with what may be expected from a tank gun firing depleted rounds into a main road.

On the other hand, the descriptions are much more akin to what might be expected from the use of fuel-air explosives. The US used such weapons in Vietnam, although not against human beings. Research into fuel-air explosives had continued over the years, both in the USfor example the 1,000-kg BLU-109 air launched bomb, and in the Soviet Union which had 500-kg ODAB-500PM. There were reports of such weapons being used in Afghanistan by the Soviets and again in Chechnya. A number of fuel-air bombs are known to be in the US and Russian inventory. But what may have been used was probably a 8220;thermobaric.8221;

The high-temperature, high-pressure explosive that uses a new class of fuel-rich explosive in the new type of weapon called 8220;thermobaric8221; warhead known as BLU-118B in US inventory, functions like the fuel-air bombs, but use a fuel which releases energy over a longer period of time when ignited. Such weapons were used in Afghanistan to attack caves.

Such weapons are 12 to 16 times more destructive than conventional high explosives against targets with large surface areas like buildings. They suck air out of confined areas creating a lethal combination of heat and pressure. Air from lungs is sucked out in microseconds and blast pressure crushes the body.

Most of such weapons so far have been aircraft-delivered bombs. But the US forces were supposed to get shoulder-fired thermobaric weapons for use in Iraq. These weapons would have devastating potential in street-fighting of the type the American forces got entangled in during the battle for Kifl.

It is likely that thermobaric warheads were used in Kifl where at least 1,200 Iraqi fighters were estimated to have died in the four-day battle. Such weapons are particularly devastating and inhuman. But they, like the fuel-air explosive bombs, are not banned, at least not yet.

Air Commodore retired Jasjit Singh, editorial consultant to The Indian Express, will analyse the war daily. Readers can send their queries to him at jasjitsinghexpressindia.com