HRW: Syrian using new cluster munition rocket

Loading

Syrian government forces are using a powerful type of cluster munition rocket not seen before in the conflict, Human Rights Watch said today. The new use of cluster munitions is causing civilian casualties and adding to the country’s already devastating legacy of unexploded ordnance, adds the international organization.

Evidence indicates that government forces used the rockets containing explosive submunitions in attacks on Keferzita, a town north of Hama in northern Syria, on February 12 and 13, 2014. The rocket is the largest type of cluster munition rocket to be used in Syria and contains submunitions that are more powerful and deadly than other types of submunitions.

“It is appalling that Syrian government forces are still using banned cluster munitions on their people,” said Steve Goose, arms division director at Human Rights Watch. “Cluster bombs are killing Syrian civilians now and threatening Syrians for generations to come.”

Syrian government rocket attacks on Keferzita on February 12 and 13 killed at least two civilians and wounded at least 10 others, according to a local activist from Hama who is not affiliated with rebel groups and a doctor who spoke to Human Rights Watch.

Photographs of rocket remnants provided to Human Rights Watch by local activists who said they took them after the attack show sections of a 9M55K 300mm surface-to-surface rocket – including parts of the rocket motor, its cargo section, nose cone, and the associated connectors. Also pictured is an unexploded cylindrical 9N235 antipersonnel fragmentation submunition, the type delivered by the 9M55K rocket, with markings indicating the submunition was manufactured in 1991.


Related Articles

Oil Nationaliazation and the 1953 Coup in Iran: A Conversation with Ervand Abrahamian

Loading

  Demonstrators in Iran during the 1953 coup, Frank Walsh Creative Commons. In August 1953, the U.S. and British governments

Colombia. Sobre los cuatro soldados de La Marina acusados de rebelión

Loading

Investigación: Así opera el cartel de testigos para fabricar falsos positivos   La consolidación militar, adelantada dentro del marco contrainsurgente

Deadly explosions hit central Aleppo

Loading

At least 25 people have been killed and dozens more wounded as several explosions ripped through the center of Aleppo 

No comments

Write a comment
No Comments Yet! You can be first to comment this post!

Write a Comment