London, March 06: Six years after a fierce battle between US forces and insurgents, the Iraqi city of Fajullah is witnessing a sharp increase in birth defects linked to the chemical weapons allegedly used by the American troops.
Children in the city are being born with limb, head, heart and nervous system defects. There is even a claim that a baby was born with three heads, the Daily Mail reported.
It is also reported that the number of heart defects among newborn babies there is said to be 13 times higher than the rate in Europe.
Fallujah, located some 40 miles west of Iraqi capital Baghdad, was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the Iraq war in late 2004.
The US Marines led ‘Operation Phantom Fury’ to recapture it from insurgents, while British troops were involved in manning checkpoints on the outskirts of the city as the Americans went in.
Though there were claims that the US forces used depleted uranium weapons such as ‘bunkerbuster’ bombs against the insurgents, Washington has only admitted that it used white phosphorus only as an illumination device during the fightings.
Both types of weapons can contaminate crops and water supplies, and under international law it is illegal if used as an offensive weapon, the report said.
Malik Hamdan, a British-based Iraq researcher, told the BBC that Fallujah doctors were swamped by a ‘massive, unprecedented’ number of heart defects and other problems.
–PTI