Weapons of mass destruction discovered in Iraq after all

Iraqi researchers believe America's and Britain's use of depleted uranium weapons in the two Gulf wars is responsible for the sharp rise in cancer and birth defects in the country in the past ten years.

Doctors in Iraq are recording a sharp rise in the number of cancer victims south of Baghdad. Sufferers in the province of Babil have risen almost tenfold in just three years. Locals blame depleted uranium from US military equipment used in the 2003 invasion.

500 cases of cancer were diagnosed in 2004. That figure rose to almost 1,000 two years later. In 2008, the number of cases increased sevenfold to 7,000. In 2009, there have so far been more than 9,000 new cases, and the number is rising.

Iraqi researchers believe radiation is responsible for the increase in cancer and birth defects in the country, and Christopher Busby, a British scientist who has carried out research into the risks of radioactive pollution, says there is proof of a definitive link between cancer and depleted uranium. "In the last ten years, research has emerged that has made it quite clear that uranium is one of the most dangerous substances known to man, certainly in the form that it takes when used in these wars."

Depleted uranium (DU) munitions were used in the first and second Gulf wars, and in the Balkans. The then UK defence minister, Geoff Hoon, said in January 2001 that banning their use would put British service people's lives at risk, and that the weapons were "astonishingly effective". There are suspicions that they are now being used in Afghanistan.

BBC News (4 January 2001) reported that depleted uranium is "1.7 times denser than lead, and highly valued by armies for its ability to punch through armoured vehicles. When a weapon made with a DU tip or core strikes a solid object, like the side of a tank, it goes straight through it and erupts in a burning cloud of vapour. The vapour settles as dust, which is both chemically poisonous and radioactive".

On impact, a DU missile burns at 10,000C, 30% of the shell fragments into shrapnel, and the remaining 70% vaporises into three highly toxic oxides, including uranium oxide. Its target is left covered in black dust, while further particles remain suspended in the air and can travel over great distances, according to wind and weather.

Laws that are breached by the use of DU shells include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Charter of the United Nations, the Genocide convention, the convention against torture, the four Geneva conventions of 1949, the conventional weapons convention of 1980 and the Hague conventions of 1899 and 1907.