Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Thermobaric bombs?

From Göran:  "I completely agree with your description of both sides of the Syrian civil war as liers and killers. But I stumbled on this description of the effects of Fuel-Air explosives (or thermobaric bombs) in a report by Human Rights Watch (2000). As I understand Syria has such weapons and has used them before in the civil war. The problem with FAE is that everyone uses them and that they are therefore considered "legal".

According to a 1993 study by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency:  The [blast] kill mechanism against living targets is unique--and unpleasant.... What kills is the pressure wave, and more importantly, the subsequent rarefaction [vacuum], which ruptures the lungs.... If the fuel deflagrates but does not detonate, victims will be severely burned and will probably also inhale the burning fuel. Since the most common FAE fuels, ethylene oxide and propylene oxide, are highly toxic, undetonated FAE should prove as lethal to personnel caught within the cloud as most chemical agents.(8) 
 
According to a separate U.S. Central Intelligence Agency study, "the effect of an FAE explosion within confined spaces is immense. Those near the ignition point are obliterated. Those at the fringe are likely to suffer many internal, and thus invisible injuries, including burst eardrums and crushed inner ear organs, severe concussions, ruptured lungs and internal organs, and possibly blindness.""