HRW: Saudis Using US-Made Cluster Bombs against Yemen

Local Editor

Human Rights Watch released a report Sunday providing new indications that Saudi Arabia has fired American-made cluster munitions, banned by international treaty, in civilian areas of Yemen, and said their use may also violate United States law.

"Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners, as well as their US supplier, are blatantly disregarding the global standard that says cluster munitions should never be used under any circumstances," Steve Goose, the arms director at Human Rights Watch, said in the report.

Human Rights Watch and other groups have previously accused Saudi Arabia of using cluster munitions in Yemen, including in a Jan. 6 strike in Sana, the capital, and have criticized the United States as an accomplice.

In a Jan. 12 letter to President Obama, Megan Burke, the director of the Cluster Munition Coalition, a disarmament group, urged him to "demand that Saudi-led coalition members stop using cluster munitions," and said the United States "should investigate its own role in the recent strikes."

John Kirby, the State Department spokesman, said in a statement Sunday night: "We have seen the Human Rights Watch report, and are reviewing it. Obviously we remain deeply concerned by reports of harm to civilians and have encouraged the Saudi-led coalition to investigate reports of civilian harm."

Cluster munitions contain submunitions, or bomblets, that disperse widely and kill indiscriminately. Many bomblets can fail to explode, posing a threat to civilians.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team