Syrian forces accused of using cluster bombs

Monday 15 October 2012

Syrian government forces have dropped banned Russian-made cluster bombs over civilian areas in the past week as they battle to reverse rebel gains on a strategic highway, Human Rights Watch has said.

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Angus MacSwan BEIRUT/AMMAN

The New York-based organisation said the bombs were dropped from planes and heli-copters near the main north-south highway running through Maarat al Numan, a town rebels seized last week cutting the route from Damascus to Aleppo.

Cluster munitions drop hundreds of bomblets on a wide area, designed to kill as many people as possible. Human rights groups say their use near civilian homes can be a war crime.More than 100 nations have banned their use under a convention which became international law in 2010, but Syria has not signed it, nor have Russia, China or the United States.Towns targeted included Maarat, Tamanea, Taftanaz and al Tah. Cluster bombs have also been used in other areas in Homs, Aleppo and Latakia provinces, and near Damascus, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said."Syria's disregard for its civilian population is all too evident in its air campaign, which now apparently includes dropping these deadly cluster bombs into populated areas," said Steve Goose, arms director at HRW.The organisation previously reported Syrian use of cluster bombs in July and August, but the renewed strikes indicate the government's determination to regain strategic control in the north-west.HRW said it learned initially about the latest use of the weapons from videos released by opposition activists and had confirmed it in interviews with residents in two towns. It had no information on casualties. The bombs were Russian-made, but it was not known how or when Syria acquired them, it said.Residents from Taftanaz and Tamanea – both near Maarat al Numan – told HRW, helicopters had dropped cluster munitions on or near their towns last Tuesday. One that hit Tamanea scattered bomblets between two schools, a resident was quoted as saying. People were taking away unexploded bomblets as souvenirs. "The cluster munition strikes and unexploded ordnance they leave behind pose a huge danger to civilian populations, who often seem unaware how easily these submunitions could still explode," Mr Goose said.Syrian government officials were not immediately available to comment on the HRW report. The state news agency said yesterday loyalist forces had killed dozens of "terrorists" in Aleppo, and had captured rockets. Rebels surrounded an army garrison near a north-western town, in the latest push to seize more territory in a province near the Turkish border, opposition activists said. Rebels also posted a video on the internet purportedly showing a fighter jet they had shot down in the area the previous day.Several hundred soldiers were trapped in the siege of a base in Urum al Sughra, on the main road between the contested city of Aleppo, Syria's commercial and industrial hub, and Turkey."Rebels attacked an armoured column sent from Aleppo to rescue the 46th Regiment at Urum al Sughra and stopped it in its tracks," Firas Fuleifel, one of the activists said by phone from Idlib province, west of Aleppo. He said the jet was shot down while trying to provide air support to the column.Mr Assad's forces still control Idlib on a main highway linking Aleppo to the port of Latakia, making the route an important rebel target.

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Syrian forces accused of using cluster bombs

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