Russia in `daily cluster bomb attacks` in Syria

Risingbd Desk: Over the past two weeks, Syrian government and Russian military forces have carried out daily air strikes using internationally banned cluster bombs in opposition-held areas across Syria, killing dozens of civilians, according to Human Rights Watch.

 

In a report released on Monday, the monitoring group said the joint military operations launched at least 14 attacks with the weapons across five governorates since January 26, killing at least 37 civilians, including nine children.

 

Scores of others were also injured, the report said, adding that the total number of cluster attacks during the period was likely to be higher.

 

"Local activists have reported at least eight additional attacks," it said, but noted they could not be verified.

 

An international convention banning the use of cluster munitions because of their indiscriminate impact came into force in 2010.

 

The weapons pose a threat to civilians owing to the widespread destruction they cause. Unexploded bomblets are often left behind following attacks.

 

The intensified use of the explosives came amid the Syrian government`s offensive to seize territory from opposition fighters in the provinces of Aleppo, Idlib, Damascus, Homs and Hama.

 

Some of the cluster munition attacks reportedly occurred in the northern governorate of Aleppo, where an ongoing offensive has caused  tens of thousands of people to flee to the Turkish border.

 

Citing examples, HRW said it received reports that in the town of Anadan, cluster munitions and other weapons were used in an air attack that also struck a field hospital on January 27, killing a nurse.

 

On the same day in the central governorate of Homs, an aircraft dropped cluster munitions on Kafr Laha, a town in opposition-controlled territory under siege by Syrian government forces, killing at least six people and wounding 59 others, including 27 children, the report cited an anonymous local journalist as saying.

 

Other witnesses confirmed the death toll, HRW said.

 

Source: agencies

 

risingbd/Feb 9, 2016/Nasim