Syrian Forces Using Soviet-Made Cluster Bombs on Rebels: Report

-
BEIRUT — Human Right Watch on July 12 said Syrian regime forces appear to be using Soviet-produced cluster bombs against rebel hideouts in a mountainous region of Hama province.
Two videos posted online on July 10 appear to show unexploded submunitions and a bomb canister in Jabal Shahshabu, northwest of the city of Hama, said the New York-based group.
It quoted a local militant as saying the region has come under constant bombardment from the air and ground over the past two weeks, targeting rebels and their cave hideouts.
“These videos show identifiable cluster bombs and submunitions,” said Steve Goose, arms division director at HRW. “If confirmed, this would be the first documented use of these highly dangerous weapons by the Syrian armed forces during the conflict.”
HRW said its own arms experts and those from from the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining said that one video showed the remnants of a RBK250 series cluster bomb canister.
The other shows unexploded 15 AO-1Sch submunitions, small fragmentation bomblets that are delivered by RBK bombs, it said.
“The RBK-250 series cluster bomb can only be delivered from a warplane because of its size and the speed necessary for its submunitions to be deployed correctly,” HRW said.
More than 100 countries, not including Syria, have signed a Convention on Cluster Munitions that entered into force in August 2010. It requires signatories to stop the use, production and transfer of the weapons.
Many cluster bombs fail to explode immediately, lie hidden for years, and kill and maim civilians.

Syrian Forces Using Soviet-Made Cluster Bombs on Rebels: Report

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

China reveals details about 500 kg gliding sub-munitions dispenser

-
Image
  China reveals details about 500 kg gliding sub-munitions dispenser by  Gabriel Dominguez Chinese state-owned media have revealed details about a 500 kg unpowered, gliding sub-munitions dispenser developed for use by People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft. CCTV 7 provided details about a 500 kg gliding sub-munitions dispenser for use by PLA aircraft. (CCTV 7 via Weibo) In a 15 August news report the China Central Television 7 (CCTV 7) channel stated that the guided stand-off weapon, which is very similar in appearance to the Y6-J (also known as CS/BBC5) Guided Glider Aerial Bomb displayed at the Airshow China 2018 defence exhibition in Zhuhai, has a gliding range of about 60 km and has been designed as a fire-and-forget weapon that is capable of delivering at least six different types of sub-munitions to strike a variety of targets. CCTV 7 reported that the aerodynamically shaped dispenser, which resembles the US-made AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW), can carry up to 240...
Read more

India Simplifies Defense Offset Guidelines

-
NEW DELHI — Foreign companies likely will welcome India’s revised guidelines for meeting defense offset obligations, announced Aug. 2 by the Ministry of Defence, which offers simpler rules — including allowing co-production and co-development in Indian defense projects to qualify as offsets. India requires overseas companies awarded defense contracts worth more than $55 million to fulfill offsets equal to at least 30 percent of the total value. The new Defense Offset Guideline went into effect Aug. 1. “The key objective of the Defence Offset Policy is to leverage capital acquisitions to develop Indian defense industry by fostering development of internationally competitive enterprises; augmenting capacity for research, design and development related to defense products and services; and encouraging development of synergistic sectors like civil aerospace and internal security,” the MoD said in its official news release. The revised guidelines make a distinction between equity and ...
Read more

Chinese Frigate ‘Stranded’ in Disputed Waters

-
BEIJING — A Chinese naval frigate has run aground while patrolling disputed waters in the South China Sea, the defense ministry said July 13, amid tensions with the Philippines over territorial claims. The ship was on “routine patrol” when it became stranded near Half Moon Shoal in the Spratly Islands on July 11, the ministry said in a statement posted on its website. The shoal is off the Philippine island of Palawan. No one was injured in the accident and the People’s Liberation Army’s Navy was now organizing a rescue, the statement said, but gave no further details. The Sydney Morning Herald on July 13 quoted Western diplomatic sources as saying the frigate, which has been discouraging fishing boats from the Philippines from entering the area, was “thoroughly stuck.” China says it has sovereign rights to all the South China Sea, believed to sit atop vast oil and gas deposits, including areas close to the coastlines of other countries and hundreds of miles from its own landmass....
Read more