Posted on 07/27/2006 3:31:44 AM PDT by yankeedame
LEBANON is investigating reports from doctors that Israel has used weapons in its 15-day-old bombardment of southern Lebanon that have caused wounds they have never seen before. "We are sending off samples tomorrow, but we have no confirmation yet that illegal weapons have been used," Health Minister Mohammed Khalife said.
The Israeli army said it had used only conventional weapons and ammunition in attacks aimed at Hezbollah guerrillas and nothing contravening international law.
Blackened bodies have been showing up at hospitals in southern Lebanon two weeks into the war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas that has seen at least 418 people, mostly civilians, killed in Lebanon and at least 42 Israelis.
Killed by Israeli air raids, the Lebanese dead are charred in a way local doctors, who have lived through years of civil war and Israeli occupation, say they have not seen before.
Bachir Cham, a Belgian-Lebanese doctor at the Southern Medical Centre in Sidon, received eight bodies after an Israeli air raid on nearby Rmeili which he said exhibited such wounds.
He has taken 24 samples from the bodies to test what killed them. He believes it is a chemical.
Dr Cham said the bodies of some victims were "black as shoes, so they are definitely using chemical weapons. They are all black but their hair and skin is intact so they are not really burnt. It is something else".
"If you burnt someone with petrol their hair would burn and their skin would burn down to the bone. The Israelis are 100 per cent using chemical weapons."
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud has repeatedly accused Israel of using phosphorus bombs in its offensive.
Human Rights Watch, which has accused the Israeli army of using cluster bombs in populated areas of southern Lebanon, said it had not verified claims that Israel had used phosphorus.
"We are investigating but we haven't confirmed anything yet. We have seen phosphorus used before and we have seen it in the artillery stocks of the Israeli army in the north," said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch.
"Phosphorus shells do have a legitimate use in illuminating the battlefield at night. The offensive use of phosphorus would be a violation of international conventions."
Television footage shows some bodies, such as those of 20 civilians killed when an Israeli missile hit the van in which they were fleeing the border village of Marwaheen, blackened in the way Dr Cham describes. No one knows what killed them.
"We are seeing abnormal burns, different from wars we've seen in the past. The corpses of these victims are shrinking to half their normal size. You think it is the corpse of a child at first but it turns out to be a grown man," said Raed Salman Zeinedine, director of Tyre Government Hospital.
"We've never seen anything like it but what the causes are I don't want to speculate. We have no scientific answer."
The Israel Army said it did not target civilians at all.
"We use only weapons and ammunition which will best hit our targets and cause least collateral damage," said army spokesman Captain Jacob Dallal.
"It could be that a body is burned from fire or the force of an explosion, but between that and suggesting we do something illegal under international law are two different things."
The more dead Lebanese the better for the propaganda of the Islamic terrorists. I really wouldn't put it past them to lob a few of their own bombs into Lebanon. They have absolutely no remorse when it comes to murdering their own for the overall good of their sacred jihad.
Exactly. It's a "Willy Pete" (White Phosphorous) round. It generate extreme heat. This is not a WMD.
Yeah, the bones are shrinking...IIIIIIIMMMMMMM MEEEELTTTING...
"The corpses of these victims are shrinking to half their normal size."
Simple! These chemical bombs must contain alum.
What's the old joke about convincing your girlfriend to use alum and Kentucky Fried Chicken batter? Make it up tight and finger licking good?
I would think that bodies have a tendency to do that when they become "crispy critters". It's a matter of the water evaporating off.
Yup; that was my first thought, too!
Dang! If the RATS are holed up in their OWN 'weapon' bunker, when it goes, THEY will be the ones affected by THEIR own weapons!
Stupid dumb crap. If it is really something they never saw before maybe they should check and see what munitions the terrorist have that we are blowing up in the raids. Damn, what pure a@@holes.
We were taught in basic to use Willie Pete on anything flamable. Have the Geneva rules changed in the last 20 years?
Another bunch of idiots spouting off about something they know absolutely nothing about.
Cluster bombs, WP, FAEs... all are conventional munitions. Next thing you know, the reaction will be: "(GASP!) We have evidence that the Israelis have actually used REAL BULLETS!"
BTW, is it just me or do the 'human rights' in "Human Rights Watch" only apply to terrorists, thugs, criminals and dictators?
I guess the rest of us just don't need human rights.
This is the problem with stupid leaders and stupid journalists.
White Phosphorus is an incindiary and normal round.
Phosgene is a chemical weapon. Both have phosphorus in them.
People need to be more specific. Of course the MSN will play this so as to display the IDF in the worst possible light.
This "so-called" doctor has his head so far up his a$$ he could chew his food and s**t from the same orfice! Willie Pete (WP) does not cause burns of this type.
IslamoBS
While there is no guarantee that a child under 10 is not a terrorist, the majority are likely to be just kids killed accidently.
There is also no assurance that there is a child inside the coffin. And even if there is, I would hold the one who started the war responsible for the death of those children, not the ones who were attacked.
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