Russia accuses the United States of dropping white phosphorus bombs on a Syrian village – National

The Russian military has accused the US Air Force of using white phosphorus bombs banned in air raids in the Syrian Deir ez-Zor province.

According to a statement from the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria, a branch of the Russian Ministry of Defense, incendiary munitions were dropped on the village of Hajin, causing serious fires.

Declarations of death and injury are still being verified, the statement said.

The US military did not respond to the allegation.

READ MORE: Scene staged for the latest bloody clash in Syria – a "catastrophe" in preparation

White phosphorus can legally be used to create screens and smoke signals, but its use in civilian areas is prohibited by the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control, the substance causes horrible burns and can be absorbed through the surface of the skin, burn deep into the muscles and bones and result in multiple organ failure and death.

Dressed burns can be re-ignited when dressings are removed and white phosphorus is re-exposed to oxygen, which means that even seemingly minor burns can be fatal.

WATCH: UN fears Syria's chemical weapons fight "10,000 terrorists"

The US military said it did not use white phosphorus as a weapon, but had already been accused of not being fully involved in the case – after being accused of using white phosphorus in Iraq 2005, the US State Department only used as a signaling device. But, faced with evidence, the army later admitted that it was using white phosphorus as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants, the BBC reported.

More recently, US-led coalition forces have also been accused of white phosphorus misuse in Iraq and Syria, according to Human Rights Watch.

Amnesty International warned that white phosphorus can be dangerous even though it is not used as a weapon because it can partially burn and reignite weeks later, posing a residual risk to civilians .

Follow @Kalvapalle