Embassy in Rome denied that US troops had used white phosphorus as a weapon. On 15 November 2005, the US ambassador to the UK, Robert H. Tuttle, wrote to The Independent also denying that the United States used white phosphorus as a weapon in Fallujah, but later that same day US Department of Defense spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Barry Venable confirmed to the BBC that US forces had used white phosphorus as an incendiary weapon there, in order to drive combatants out of dug-in positions. On 22 November 2005, the Iraqi government stated it would investigate the use of white phosphorus in the battle of Fallujah. On 30 November 2005, a BBC article included an image of WP being fired from helicopters in the air above Fallujah and quoted General Peter Pace that white phosphorus munitions were a "legitimate tool of the military" used to illuminate targets and create smokescreens, saying "It is not a chemical weapon. It is an incendiary. And it is well within the law of war to use those weapons as they're being used, for marking and for screening". The article wrote that "If it comes into contact with human skin, white phosphorus can ignite and burn down to the bone if it is not exhausted or extinguished." Professor Paul Rodgers from the University of Bradford department of Peace and conflict studies said that white phosphorus would probably fall into the category of chemical weapons if it was used directly against people. George Monbiot stated that he believed the firing of white phosphorus by US forces directly at the combatants in Fallujah "in order to exert the toxic effects of those munitions upon those combatants to flush them out so they could then be killed" was in contravention of the Chemical Weapons Convention and, therefore, a war crime. Use by Israeli forces in Lebanon During the 2006 Lebanon War, Israel said that it had used phosphorus shells "against military targets in open ground" in south Lebanon. Israel said that its use of these munitions was permitted under international conventions. However, President of Lebanon Émile Lahoud said that phosphorus shells were used against civilians. The first Lebanese official complaint about the use of phosphorus came from Information Minister Ghazi Aridi. Use by Israeli forces in Gaza In its early statements regarding the Gaza War of 2008–2009, the Israeli military denied using WP entirely, saying "The IDF acts only