Following the now confirmed bombing of a Russian passenger plane by ISIS, Russia has taken the gloves off.

A video has surfaced showing white phosphorus being dropped on ISIS outposts.

Known as Willie Pete, white phosphorus is banned from use against people (as many nations feel that when used on human targets the substance violates chemical weapons treaties), it is allowed to be used as to create a smoke screen and/or illuminate ground targets, leaving a lot of gray area for “inaccurate” placement of bombs. WP also has the effect of igniting just about anything it touches (trees, homes, clothes, people):

Considering the targets of this were ISIS terrorists… it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving group.

This video from the United States Army explains the relative merits of White Phosphorus over traditional High Explosive ordinance:

According to Wikipedia:

White phosphorus munitions were used extensively in Korea, Vietnam and later by Russian forces in Chechnya. White phosphorus grenades were used in Vietnam for destroying Viet Cong tunnel complexes as they would burn up all oxygen and suffocate the enemy soldiers sheltering inside. British soldiers also made extensive use of phosphorus grenades during the Falklands conflict to destroy Argentine positions as the peaty soil they were constructed from tended to lessen the impact of fragmentation grenades According to GlobalSecurity.org, during the December 1994 battle for Grozny in Chechnya, every fourth or fifth Russian artillery or mortar round fired was a smoke or white phosphorus round.

Source: The Times