Mark 77 bomb: Encyclopedia II - Mark 77 bomb - Use in Iraq and Afghanistan

Mark 77 bomb - Use in Iraq and Afghanistan

MK-77s were used by the US Marine Corps during the First Gulf War and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Approximately 500 were dropped, reportedly mostly on Iraqi-constructed oil filled trenches. They were also used at Tora Bora, in Afghanistan ^[3].

At least thirty MK-77s were also used by Marine Corps aviators over a three-day period during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, according to a June 2005 letter from the UK Ministry of Defense to former Labour MP Alice Mahon. This letter stated:

"The US destroyed its remaining Vietnam era napalm in 2001 but, according to the reports for 1 Marine Expeditionary Force (1 MEF) serving in Iraq in 2003, they used a total of 30 MK 77 weapons in Iraq between 31 March and 2 April 2003, against military targets away from civilian areas. The MK 77 firebomb does not have the same composition as napalm, although it has similar destructive characteristics. The Pentagon has told us that owing to the limited accuracy of the MK 77, it is not generally used in urbain terrain or in areas where civilians are congregated."^[4]

This confirmed previous reports by U.S. Marine pilots and their commanders saying they had used Mark 77 firebombs on military targets:

"We napalmed both those [bridge] approaches," said Colonel James Alles, commander of Marine Air Group 11. "Unfortunately there were people there ... you could see them in the cockpit video. They were Iraqi soldiers."

But according to the RAI documentary, MK 77 had been used in Baghdad in 2003 in civilians-populated areas. However, there were never any confirmed reports of the use of incendiaries against civilians.

In some cases where journalists reported that the U.S. military has used napalm, military spokesmen denied the use of "napalm" without making it clear that MK-77 bombs had actually been deployed instead (^[5][6]).

Mark 77 bomb - Pentagon misinforms UK Ministry of Defence

U.S. officials incorrectly informed UK Ministry of Defence officials that MK-77s had not been used by the U.S. in Iraq, leading to Defence Minister Adam Ingram making inaccurate statements to the UK Parliament in January 2005 [7] [8]. Later both Adam Ingram and Secretary of State for Defence John Reid apologised for these inaccurate statements being made to Members of Parliament.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Use in Iraq and Afghanistan", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki