[6] As of November 2022[update], all past attempts to regulate or restrict thermobaric weapons have failed.
[7][5] The protocol prohibits, in all circumstances, making the civilian population as such, individual civilians or civilian objects, the object of attack by any weapon or munition which is primarily designed to set fire to objects or to cause burn injury to persons through the action of flame, heat or a combination thereof, produced by a chemical reaction of a substance delivered on the target.
Forest and other plants may not be a target unless they are used to conceal combatants or other military objectives.
[8][9] The protocol lists certain munition types like smoke shells which only have a secondary or additional incendiary effect; these munition types are not considered to be incendiary weapons.
[10] An investigation into the doctrine taught by various militaries was conducted sometime after 2001 by the International Committee of the Red Cross as part of its database on Customary International Humanitarian Law.