[4] Charles E. Allen, the CIA's National Intelligence Officer for Warning, supported the selection of bomb targets during the Gulf War.

[5] However, Human Rights Watch noted in 1991, "It is now well established, through interviews with neighborhood residents, that the [Amiriyah] structure was plainly marked as a public shelter and was used throughout the air war by large numbers of civilians".

[6] Satellite photos and electronic intercepts indicating this alternative use as a command and control center were regarded as circumstantial and unconvincing to Brigadier General Buster Glosson, who had primary responsibility for targeting.

Journalist John Simpson reported on the horrific sight of "bodies fused together so that they formed entire blocks of flesh" along with "a layer of melted human fat an inch deep lying on the surface of the water pumped in by the firemen".

[14] Algerian and Sudanese governing parties condemned the bombing as a "paroxysm of terror and barbarism" and a "hideous, bloody massacre" respectively.

The report goes on to accuse the Iraqi government of deliberately keeping "select civilians" as human shields in a military facility at Amiriyah.

[18] According to Jane's Information Group, the signals intelligence observed at the shelter was from an aerial antenna that was connected to a communications center some 270 metres (300 yd) away.

[20] The 1977 Additional Protocol I (AP1) to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, Article 57 requires the "principle of proportionality", which is that the military advantage of an attack must be balanced against potential for civilian casualties.

However, Human Rights Watch points out that the US in 1987 had already accepted parts of Protocol I as customary international humanitarian law, including affirming that "attacks not be carried out that would clearly result in collateral civilian casualties disproportionate to the expected military advantage.

According to visitors' reports, Umm Greyda, a woman who lost eight children in the bombing, moved into the shelter to help create the memorial and serves as its primary guide.

[8] Seven Iraqi families living in Belgium who lost relatives in the bombing launched a lawsuit against former President George H. W. Bush, former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell, and General Norman Schwarzkopf for committing what they claim were war crimes in the 1991 bombing.

The suit was brought under Belgium's universal jurisdiction guarantees in March 2003 but was dismissed in September following their restriction to Belgian nationals and residents in August 2003.