Saudi-led Forces Indiscriminately Airdrop Cluster Bombs on Yemen’s Capital, Sanaa

Deliberate or reckless use of cluster bombs in populated areas is a war crime: HRW

Saudi-led coalition forces airdropped cluster bombs on residential neighborhoods in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, early on January 6, 2016, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“It is not yet clear whether the attacks caused civilian casualties, but the inherently indiscriminate nature of cluster munitions makes such attacks serious violations of the laws of war. The deliberate or reckless use of cluster munitions in populated areas amounts to a war crime.”

“The coalition’s repeated use of cluster bombs in the middle of a crowded city suggests an intent to harm civilians, which is a war crime,” said Steve Goose, arms director at Human Rights Watch. “These outrageous attacks show that the coalition seems less concerned than ever about sparing civilians from war’s horrors.”

Description of the aerial attacks provided by the residents of two Sanaa neighborhoods are consistent with cluster munition use, said HRW.

HRW has identified several types of the munitions including US-made BLU-63 antipersonnel/anti-materiel submunitions and components of a CBU-58 cluster bomb, manufactured in 1978 at the Milan Army Ammunition Plant in the state of Tennessee, CBU-58 cluster bombs, which contains 650 submunitions  (U.S. transferred 1,000 CBU-58 bombs to Saudi Arabia sometime between 1970 and 1995).

The CBU-58 cluster bomb and BLU-63 submunition were developed by the US during the Vietnam War and are designed to attack personnel and lightly protected materiel. The submunitions also contain 5-gram titanium pellets that produce an incendiary effect on flammable targets.

Five different types of cluster munitions have been used in Yemen, four of them by the Saudis, and one by as yet an unknown source, according to HRW and Amnesty International.

The US is a party to the armed conflict in Yemen, playing a direct role in coordinating military operations, and as such, is obligated to investigate alleged violations of the laws of war in which its forces took part.

A US Defense Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity,  told U.S. News and World Report in August that “the U.S. is aware that Saudi Arabia has used cluster munitions in Yemen.”

The US Defense Department announced in November that “the State Department had approved a sale of US$1.29 billion worth of air-to-ground munitions, such as laser-guided bombs and ‘general purpose’ bombs with guidance systems – none of which are cluster munitions. The US should not sell aerial bombs to Saudi Arabia in the absence of serious investigations into alleged laws-of-war violations in Yemen,” HRW said.

HRW has called on the UN Human Rights Council to create an independent, international inquiry into alleged war crimes in Yemen by “all sides.”

“It may have been 20 years since the US last provided cluster munitions to the Saudis, but they are being used to kill civilians now,” Goose said. “The US, as a party to the conflict, should be demanding that the coalition immediately stop using these weapons or risk becoming complicit in their use.”

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Saudi-led Coalition Using Same Cluster Munition in Yemen as ISIS Fired in Syria

Saudi Arabia first used cluster bombs on Houthis in 2009: HRW

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released new evidence contending the Saudi-led coalition has been dropping  internationally-banned cluster bombs on Yemenis population.

Four civilians, including a young boy, were wounded on April 29 in Baqim, a village near the Saudi border, when unexploded submunitions detonated after local residents picked them up. HRW identified the weapon as a type of ground-fired cluster munition containing “ZP-39” submunitions, which has a distinctive red ribbon.

• The cluster munition dropped by Saudi-led coalition aircraft  near al-Amar was the CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapon.
• In addition, photographs and information from local residents indicate that Saudi-led coalition aircraft dropped a third type of cluster munition, bombs containing BLU-97 submunitions, in at least two attacks in Saada governorate on May 23.

“Human Rights Watch … has documented that Islamic State forces (also known as ISIS) fired the same weapon, whose submunition was marked ‘ZP-39,’ in northern Syria in September 2014,” said the report.

The HRW report is posted online, here.

Yemen: Deteriorating Humanitarian Crisis Situation Report No. 9 (as of 29 May 2015)

Highlights of UN OCHA Report

• The humanitarian situation in the SW governorates of Aden, Lahj, Taizz, and Al Dhale’e continues to deteriorate at an alarming rate, as violence increases and basic services grind to a halt.
• The northern governorates of Sa’ada, Hajjah and Amran face increasing levels of displacement due to airstrikes. Insecurity has limited access and the provision of assistance.
• The death toll reached 1,976; 27 May was the deadliest day so far with reports of at least 80 people killed and 300 injured. The conflict is now entering its third month.

• People in need: 15.9m
• Internally displaced: 545,719
• Registered deaths resulting from conflict: 1,976
• Registered injuries resulting from conflict: 8,034
• People who have become food insecure since escalation of conflict: 1.4m [UN OCHA]

Terrorists Fed by Saudi Royals’ Hatred for Shia Muslims

Meantime, the Saudi division of the Islamic State terrorists group has called on all jihadist to cleanse the Arabian Peninsula of Shia Muslims in an audio recording, said a US-based ISIS monitoring group, SITE.

A representative of Najd Province, a division of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS/DAESH) has called on Sunni Saudi youths to join the group, fend off the “Shia threat” and “purify the land” of the “disbelievers and apostates,” said the report.

The terrorist group has reportedly claimed responsibility for the May-22 suicide bombing of a Shi’ite mosque in the town of al-Qadeeh, Qatif province, which killed at least 21 people and wounded more than 50 other worshipers.

The local ISIS terrorists have also claimed responsibility for bombing another Shi’ite mosque in the Saudi port city of Dammam on Friday, May 29, 2015.

A suicide bomber, reportedly disguised as a woman, blew himself up in the parking lot of the mosque during Friday prayers, killing at least four people.