Here’s a frighteningly beautiful photo off the AP wire today of something exploding over Gaza. To me, it looks like a couple of giant squid monsters on a rampage. But what’s really going on here? It’s clearly an air burst of something. Flares? Cluster bombs? White phosphorus shells? What say ye, Teeming Millions?
Looks like flares of some sort so ground troops can see? Or not.
I would say that is the launch of two of the Kassam rockets they have been firing at Israel. You can make out the shape of the rocket above the fire/smoke trail.
Looks like white phosphorus shells detonating. They are generally used as smoke rounds but WP has a pronounced incendiary effect as well.
Here’s an (old) photo showing a WP bomb explosion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Alabama_(BB-8)_1921.jpg
If you do a Google image search on white phosphorus have a strong stomach as you will get a lot of images of burn victims.
I also believe they are smoke shells, likely the M825:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/m825.htm
With photo:
http://op-for.com/2009/01/monday_miscellany.html
Thanks, Henrichek and Valgard. Looks like a particularly good angle on a pair of M825 explosion, and the extreme brightness of the second, lower explosion suggests a white phosphorus payload.