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HRW: US cluster bombs threaten Iraqi lives

3 Comments Posted by on December 10, 2009

Thu, 10 Dec 2009, Press TV

The Human Rights Watch has raised alarm over the cluster ammunitions left strewn all over Iraq by the US-led coalition forces attacks during the Persian Gulf wars.

The organization says during 1991 and 2003, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom dropped over 61,000 cluster bombs on Iraqi soil.

The rights group adds the shocking extent of unexploded cluster bombs, dropped by coalition planes in Iraq, shows the vast area of the country is at danger from cluster bombs lying in cities, farmland and on the main arteries across the country.

Experts in clearing conflict zones of unexploded bombs say that millions of Iraqi adults and children are at risk, along with humanitarian aid workers, United Nations workers, and military personnel.

In 2003 alone, the US and UK used nearly 13,000 rounds of cluster bombs containing an estimated two million sub-munitions during three weeks of major combat. The new revelation raises fresh questions for former US president George Bush and ex British primer Tony Blair, who insisted that post-conflict Iraq would be a safer place than it was under Saddam Hussein.

Aid agencies say that hundreds of Iraqi civilians have already been maimed after touching the unexploded cluster bombs. The victims are often young children scavenging for the valuable metal that encases the explosives.

Some 103 countries have already signed a convention on banning the use of cluster bombs, but Washington is not yet a signatory.

The need for an international ban has become particularly evident after Israel’s war against Lebanon in 2006. The Israeli military is believed to have left a huge number of cluster munitions in the region which continue to kill and maim scores of civilians every year.

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3 responses to “HRW: US cluster bombs threaten Iraqi lives”

  1. jonolan December 10, 2009 at 7:38 pm

    Ignoring for a moment that Human Rights Watch is rabidly anti-American because America supports the Jews that HRW wants to watch the Muslims exterminate, and that Press TV is nothing but the mouthpiece for Iran’s illegal regime – things on the clusterbomb front are improving.

    The American military absolutely loathes the current failure rate of the sub-munitions – “bomblets” – in the current models of clusterbombs. Current a lot of money is being spent on researching a 100% frangible – read as exploding – clusterbomb.

    In the prototype designs even the casings are made of explosive material, ensuring that complete fratricide of the bomblets is achieved.

    Here’s one simple fact – nobody in uniform wants there to be randomly spewed, unexploded bomblets laying around. Sometimes the troops have to move through regions where they are!

  2. realistic bird December 11, 2009 at 6:53 pm

    Hey Jonolan, how are you?

    The ones who lost a limb or a loved one don’t really care about the intentions or aims of military personnel.

  3. jonolan December 13, 2009 at 4:37 am

    True in a way. But, since the military has a lot to say about weapons procurement, they should care if they have the capacity to think beyond themselves.

    As a side note – I personally HATE the current standard in clusterbombs. I find them to be heinous to anyone involved with them. That’s my opinion as a veteran.

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