A human rights watchdog said Wednesday it has fresh evidence the Saudi-led coalition used U.S. cluster bombs, resulting in the deaths of dozens of civilians in Yemen.
Human Rights Watch said it identified United States-made, ground-launched M26 cluster munition rockets that were likely used in seven attacks in the country’s northwestern Hajja governorate between late April and mid-July. The group said it visited four of the seven sites, and also spoke with witnesses of the attacks who said that three children were among the 13 civilians killed in the attacks. The group viewed photographic evidence of unexploded munition remnants at the other sites, it said.
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HRW adds in a media statement: “Several of the attacks took place in or near areas with concentrations of civilians, indicating that the rocket attacks themselves may have been unlawfully indiscriminate in violation of the laws of war.”
“The loss of civilian life in Hajja shows why most countries have made a commitment never to use cluster munitions,” said Ole Solvang, senior emergencies researcher with HRW. “These weapons not only kill or injure people at the time of attack, but the unexploded submunitions go on killing long afterward.”
Neither the U.S., Saudi Arabia, or Yemen have joined the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans their use.
HRW has previously warned that cluster munitions have been used by the coalition, and an anonymous Pentagon official told U.S. News this month that “the U.S. is aware that Saudi Arabia has used cluster munitions in Yemen.”
Inter Press Service reported last week: