Fragmentation bombs dropped on Iraq

Apr 14, 2003

The American and British forces may not have used bacteriological or chemical weapons so far (although the uranium-tipped missiles used are in fact chemical weapons if the long term effects are considered). They have nonetheless used a large quantity of other weapons no less deadly: namely, fragmentation bombs of all sorts.

The fragmentation bombs are designed to spread out a multitude of smaller and smaller explosions across a very wide surface. They obviously are not designed to destroy heavy armament or buildings, but rather to kill and wound as large a number of individuals as possible.

Not only are these weapons designed to achieve the maximum number of human victims, but after their primary explosion, they leave anti-personnel mines which can then be set off at random by the smallest shock – that is, by anyone passing nearby.

No one should believe that these are bombs used only on military targets – if for no other reason than the lack of reliability of these weapons. Foreign journalists stationed in Baghdad reported seeing parts of unexploded fragmentation bombs remaining from one of these guided missiles in Douri, a residential suburb of the capital on April 3. The original explosion had already killed 14 civilians and wounded 66 others.

While the American and British forces claimed that they were in pursuit of Saddam Hussein's supposed "weapons of mass destruction," they were busy using such weapons against the Iraqi population.