Filed under: Afghanistan, Air Force, Britain, Europe, european union, human rights, military strike, mlitary, nation building, occupation, Russia, Shock and Awe, Soviet Union, super weapons, Taliban, Troops, United Kingdom, vacuum bomb | Tags: Hellfire AGM-114N, MoD
UK uses lung-shredder to kill rebels
Quqnoos.com
June 23, 2008
Britain’s defence ministry admits use of ’brutal’ missile to London paper
BRITISH troops have used missiles in Afghanistan which suck the air out of human targets, shred their internal organs and crush their bodies, according to a leading British newspaper.
The Hellfire missiles, also known as vacuum bombs, are condemned by human rights groups as “brutal”.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) admitted to the London Times newspaper that its soldiers had fired the controversial thermobaric weapons, used to kill fighters in buildings and caves, from Apache attack helicopters in Afghanistan.
The MoD said the Hellfire AGM-114N, which creates a human-crushing vacuum with a second explosion, had proved so successful that the missile will now be fired from unmanned predator drones.
The Soviet Union’s forces in Afghanistan were the first to test thermobaric weapons on the enemy.
The world condemned Russia’s use of the weapon during its fight against Chechnyan rebels in the 1980s.
“We no longer accept the term thermobaric [for the AGM-114N] as there is no internationally agreed definition,” said an MoD spokesman talking to the London Times. “We call it an enhanced blast weapon.”
Human Rights Watch says the weapons are “brutal” and that their blast “makes it virtually impossible for civilians to take shelter”.
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